tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52954754831377491992024-03-13T00:48:34.686-07:00Xtina, a Backpack & a Lonely Planet!Travelling solo most times, with only a backpack, a Lonely Planet travel guide and my boyfriend for company. India, Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka...the list goes on! One tiny traveller, one epic adventure!Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.comBlogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-52196305549323845382017-01-16T05:50:00.000-08:002017-01-27T05:51:48.518-08:00Arugam Bay - Cookery classes and beach asses!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our day started with breakfast in a cute artsy cafe and a walk to a tea plantation but it was shut! Dammit, and turns out all of them shut on a Sunday as it was a Poya day. Boooo. So instead we came back to town and by then it was time for our taxi. He stopped off along the way at some waterfalls and coming up to Arugam Bay we drove through a National Park and we stopped to view wild elephants and buffalo in the plains.<br />
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When we arrived it was late afternoon so we found some beach accommodation, 500 rupees a night each for a bungalow/cababa right on the beach front in a cute little treehouse type place with hammocks etc - total chill out zone. It is low season on the east coast as its supposed to be monsoon season but we had really good weather. We had read about a really good cooking course that was eco friendly, was set up after the tsunami as a way to fund money for the community and it still was still all going for a good cause, plus it was taught by local people so it seemed great. So we went and booked that for the following evening and went for a good prawn curry and sunset on the beach.<br />
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The next day after our last few hectic days was a chill day on the beach, lunch and then our cooking course. It started at 4.30pm and lasted until around 9pm. It only cost us 2500 rupees each and we made 8 dishes in total including coconut sambol and rice. We thought as there was only two of us doing it there would be enough curry for two...nope! There was enough ingredients per dish for around 10 people! We had to invite other people along to help us eat it and then told the guy running it to eat too!<br />
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We learnt how to make; fish curry, coconut sambol - where we grated coconuts and also learnt how to produce coconut milk and coconut cream from them - okra curry, pumpkin curry, a vegetable called Snakegourd curry, aubergine salad (more like cooked aubergine in coconut oil and spices), dhal, and plantain curry. I made sure I wrote down the recipes so that I can make it all at home. It was delicious but by the time we had tasted everything we could barely eat much when it came to the final sit-down meal! However we met a good group of people by inviting them to eat. A Spanish couple and two guys from Australia.<br />
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We had spent all day also deciding where we were going next. We knew it would be a national park but we weren't sure which one we should do - there's so many in Sri Lanka!! We eventually decided on Yala National Park as its the best place to try to see Leopards. So we decided we would need to get an early bus, which the Spanish couple were also taking, so it was another early morning for us!<br />
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Our time in Arugam bay had been brief but because it was low season it was wonderfully qquiet and we had managed to have the whole beach pretty much to ourselves. Its supposed to be a great surfing spot and we could tell with the rough waves! If I ever come back to Sri Lanka it will be to the east and north during high season to see what its all about!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka6.8379771000000007 81.8251686999999496.8064456000000009 81.78482819999995 6.8695086000000005 81.865509199999948tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-45578184878097824152017-01-15T05:44:00.000-08:002017-01-27T05:45:17.232-08:00Bella Ella! Packed Trains, mountain views, homestay and...dogs?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We woke up early, had some coffee and pegged it down to the station with our stuff for 7.30am. Upon realising the que was already large and the ticket office was already open we lined up with not much hope. However we managed to secure 2nd class standing, and it was THE actual holiday today so we knew it was going to be a rammed journey. It was a good 7hrs to Ella through mountains and tea plantations so it was going to be a looooong day!<br />
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We took our stance on the platform and when the train came, which was 45mins late, we pounced on those open doors - it was already packed to the brims and our platform was also packed so it was literally a stamped and fight of the fittest to get on that damn train! But we managed to squeeze our way on and get our backpacks off before it left the station, but it was literally like being a sardine, or a cattle off to the slaughter house. It was SO busy! Even the locals were saying they had never seen the trains this packed. We also noticed out the window that our 'friends' from last night hadn't made it on! Suckers.<br />
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We were in for a very uncomfortable 7hrs. They say travel can often test your limits, perserverence, and patience. Well this was definitely one of those moments! Not only was it packed but we also had food sellers trying to go through the carriages and ticket controllers - like what the actual? Often it was like 7hrs of standing in yoga positions, one legged, crouching, contorted, bending over seats and people! But it was a pretty good atmosphere, a lot of the locals had seats and many of them gave them up for us foreigners who had been standing a while, even if it was just 30mins it was a relief to our bodies. We were saved by amazing Samosas though!<br />
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Upon arriving at around 4pm we had booked a beautiful quiet homestay and they picked us up at the station - yay! We then just took the afternoon to chill on our beautiful balcony in the jungle with a view of Ella Rock, and walk down to the town centre for dinner. We had booked breakfast and the following nights dinner at our homestay as we had heard from reviews how good it was. We were starving so found a localish place amongst all the tourist traps and had traditional rice and curry and then went for sweet rotti deserts.<br />
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The next day we decided to do a whole day of walking. Whether it was our decision to or the fact we wandered further than we should of we aren't sure lol. We awoke and had a wonderful breakfast delivered to our balcony, fresh fruit, toast, omelette, coconut rotti's and our favourite coconut pancakes!! Plus tea and coffee and fresh fruit juice. Yum! We then gave our laundry to a local family down the way to do, even though it was more expensive than the commercial places but we wanted to give it to a local family to spread our cash evenly.<br />
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Then our first destination was a hike to 9 arches bridge, a famous train bridge constructed by the British with, you guessed it, 9 arches. It took us a while to find - typical Sri Lankan maps! But we were helped by smiling villagers and I had left my trainors on the train, don't ask how, so was hiking in flip flops an getting down to the bridge was pretty hefty. We then decided to walk back the way most people came, without realising it was a walk through tiny villages that was a good 5km from town. We did meet a beautiful young girl who wanted to practise her English, and chatted to us for ages, she was very chatty but also very lovely. And lots of smiling villagers who pointed us in the right direction. But we did ignore some sound advice of a 'shortcut' into town thinking it was dodgy, but actually the way we decided to take took us even further away from town - the shortcut actually was a good shortcut - doh! I looked on google maps and found we were a good 45mins away from Ella! By then we had been walking for around 4-5hrs so we decided to try and hail down a tuk tuk, but typical, when you are away from touristy areas, the moment you need a tuk tuk to hassle you, there's none, or they are all taken by locals! So we hitched a ride in a tuk tuk with a local woman.<br />
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We decided as we were in town to head back to the place we ate in yesterday and have lunch - another Kottu! Then we headed out of town again and went on a hike to 'Little Adams Peak' a small mountain overlooking all the tea plantations and Ella, plus looking out to Ella Rock. It was stunning if a little dizzy with the height of it!<br />
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We then went back and chilled before our homestay cooked us the most delicious meal ever! Traditional sri Lankan curry which was over 7 curry dishes with rice and poppadoms!<br />
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We were wanting to head to Arugam Bay tomorrow but wanted to stop by a tea plantation before leaving, which meant we would miss all the bus connection (it would take 6-7 hrs with two connections, and if you know Sri Lankan local buses, there are no tourist buses, there are no coaches that stop for toilet breaks. These are local local, no toilet stops, loud music, crazy driving, packed to the brim and you have to flag them down on the side of the road and as you climbed the stairs with your backpack on they take off!) So we decided for £25 each, we would take a direct taxi - shame I know but we would have plenty of time for more buses! So we booked with our homestay owners husband for 1pm the next day.<br />
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That night we had a horrendous sleep because a local woman who was up for the night with the owners had brought her on-heat pet dog up and chained her to a post, however she kept getting loose and getting herself trapped, so all we could keep hearing was her whimpering and then to make matters worse there were 3 male dogs on her tail trying to hump her, so she was constantly trying to defend herself while chained up. Plus one of the males was obviously rabies ridden as he was just acting bat-shit crazy. So Tashya spent a good half an hour trying free this poor dog so she could defend herself better. While having 3 hostile male dogs around us, but she was super protective and dove to our defense if ever one tried to get too close. We managed to eventually free her and just hoped she didn't go missing otherwise we would have to lie to our homestay owners that we had nothing to do with her getting free of her chains. We went to great lengths to make it look like she'd managed to free herself lol. And eventually we managed to sleep.</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com1Ella, Sri Lanka6.8666988 81.0465530000000176.8351693 81.006212500000018 6.8982283 81.086893500000016tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-44070382749808658042017-01-12T05:38:00.000-08:002017-01-27T05:40:04.754-08:00National Holidays, broken down train and Kandy days!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So Tashya arrived in the evening and the next day, after a breakfast of traditional Sri Lankan coconut pancakes (these quickly became a favourite of ours) from a little stool down the road, and a coffee from a bakery nearby, we decided on a rough route and were headed inland towards the hill country!<br />
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So we packed our bags and grabbed a local bus to the train station thinking we could just hop on the next available train. Error. Not only do trains get pretty packed but it was also the beginning of a Poya holiday (full moon holiday). Shit. Every train to Kandy that day was fully booked, there wasn't even standing tickets available. However, we went to the ticket reservation booth and were told the only availability was in a private carriage, first class and air conditioned for 1000 rupees. When the normal classes were 150 rupees we were like, Jesus that's too expensive. But then we worked out how much that was in pounds...£7!! For a 3hr journey first class. So we quickly scrambled to the window and booked what were possibly the last tickets!<br />
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It was a two hour wait til the train so we amused ourselves on the platform by trying snacks (I'm quickly becoming addicted to Samosas, fried vegetable pancake rolls and coconut pancakes - they are filled with coconut, honey and spices.) And watching the packed trains roll in and out of the station.<br />
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Our carriage was pretty plush, reclining chairs, aircon, water, wash cloths handed to us - defo worth £7, wouldn't get in on British railways!<br />
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Two hours went by and we suddenly grounded to an abrupt stop, about half an hour from Kandy. By then it was about 5.30pm, and then we saw the commander walking down the track towards the 2nd and 3rd class carriages, and then all the locals start to get off and walk along the track! So we asked what was going on, turned out the engine had broken and we were waiting for another one to be brought out. Yay! So we waited as it went dark, obviously all the locals knew we weren't far and so walked to the next station and got tuk tuks but the rest of us just had to wait.<br />
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Luckily we were only delayed by an hour, and when we got to Kandy we hadn't booked accommodation so we went in search of a place we had seen online, luckily they had beds. It was a pretty cool open plan place, kitchen and living room downstairs with the dorm in the loft compartment upstairs with a view/balcony looking out over the hills of Kandy.<br />
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We went out for a local meal, actually frequented by the stewards from our train so we knew it must be good. I tried a Kottu there, which is veg, chicken/fish, mixed with chopped up Rotti with a spicy sauce - its delicious and became something I had again and again.<br />
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The next day we spent walking around Kandy. We first had to go in search of other accommodation as the place we were staying at were full for the 2nd night. So we found somewhere in the city centre also not far from the station as we knew the train to Ella the next day left super early. We went to the station to try and buy tickets to Ella, however again, turns out all the reserved seating was gone and a limited number of 2nd class standing tickets were left but we could only buy them from 8am in the morning - 45mins before the first train departed. Yay, more fun! Guess we would be up early to wait in line!<br />
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We walked the city centre, stopped to have a traditional milk tea - a bit like a Chai, with hot frothy milk and super sweet. And grabbed some of our favourite pancakes and snacks for our walk around the lake which took us past a giant monitor lizard.<br />
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We then decided to go to the forest in the hills behind, which took us ages to find, we kept getting lost down little backstreets and into peoples houses lol. It was a lovely quiet walk around protected forest, with barking deer, wild Boars, lizards and turtles and lots of cool birds and a viewpoint. However the map they gave us was Sri Lankan in its directions in that it didn't match anything! So we got completely lost and ended up going a way we didn't want to but it did show us some of the amazing animals there so we were happy.<br />
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We then headed back to our old hostel to pack up our bags as we had checked out but hadn't actually moved our stuff! And we chilled for a bit as we were super exhausted after walking so much. Some new guests came and with them was the most annoying Canadian woman ever who basically lived to talk at you. You could tell the backpackers she was with were relieved she latched onto us for a bit lol. She was also a super gullable person with all these ailments and she had gone to a spice garden that day (we had read most of them are scams that make you pay for things you don't want and say these herbal treatments are good for your health but are actually shit. She had gone in and believed everything they told her and bought over $300 worth of products - one was a hair removal cream that was supposed to stop your hair from growing after a while - its just Veet! Lol so we made our excuses to get away from her and went for a meal back at our local find. But before we left we fiund out they were all trying for the train to Ella tomorrow too, nooooooo! So we made a pact that we would get up earlier to try and a. Avoid her and b. Get tickets before them lol. So we got a tuk tuk over to our new place, where we basically showered and went to bed due to having to be up at 6.30am to nail these tickets to Ella!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Kandy, Sri Lanka7.2905715 80.6337261999999557.1645705000000008 80.472364699999957 7.4165725 80.795087699999954tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-9645533115040752022017-01-09T00:12:00.000-08:002017-01-09T00:15:59.740-08:00Sri Lanka - early days!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Heyyyyy<br />
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So I'm now blogging from my new destination - Sri Lanka!<br />
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I'm here for one month, and I have a fellow backpacker joining me - Tashya, who was one of the girls I did my advanced diving course with. So she joins me tonight and then the real travelling starts here!<br />
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I landed on the 6th at 1am and quickly caught an Uber (cheaper than a taxi, where locals use their own car for rides) - as if Asia has Uber now - thats just so weird and it's almost lazy - but yea, i couldn't be assed with taxi haggling at that time of morning, so maybe it's a god-send! However, it was an interesting ride as my 23-year-old driver couldn't stop himself from babbling on about his problems with his German ex-kind-of-girlfriend and his current and past sex-life. Already I was beginning to switch back to my India-me and learnt to switch off and shut up. Luckily his accent was pretty hard to understand so i just nodded and made the appropriate words to go along with his conversation. He then had the balls to ask me about my sex life 'so how is your good sex life? how many partners have you had good christina?' lol! Oh my days, it was like being back in India but kinda funny as here they have a humour to it, it's very brash and very rude, but they kind of don't mean it that way. Plus it's normally from the younger ones who want to escape the society 'norms' and think us western women are the people to be this open with...a little stereotype there!<br />
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He dropped me off at my hostel in Negombo Beach where a little middle-aged lady, Latta greeted me in her bobble hat and tired eyes and called everyone 'darling'. It was a very basic hostel, but the fact that the lady who managed it was so cute and kind of like your mother, you didn't really mind it's flaws like no wifi and dark fan-only rooms, plus it was across the road from the beach so, I really had nothing to moan about! it was so funny though as bless her, she stays up for her late check-ins, and so while she was writing out my reciept, she was falling asleep! So it took a while to check in but i managed to finally get some kind of sleep, until I was woken up by some rude Chinese people in my room at 6.30am who decided to greet their friend checking-in by turning on the light and shouting!<br />
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That day I met a lovely french girl who was coming to the end of her trip and we spent the day together eating curry and rice, chilling on the beach and going out for a meal in the evening, while trying to avoid all the tuk tuk drivers wanting to get you in one! She had actually missed her flight to India that morning because they wouldn't let her board without a return ticket, which she didn't have as she was staying for 6 months and didn't know when she would leave.<br />
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The next day I decided to pay the high price of $3 to use the pool of one of the beach resorts to avoid the beach sellers and local oggling eyes as I was on my own. So after 12 hours sleep, finally, I was able to have some relaxation after being on the road these last few days. I also went for another local curry and rice at a lovely place down the road which was delicious and I am beginning to enjoy eating with my hands again - especially as Maude the french girl had given me a little extra tip to help - use the thumb to push it into the mouth!<br />
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I also met Johnathon, a local from Jaffna who had been traveling India and Asia for a while and was back for his Australian cousins wedding. We spent the afternoon by the pool chatting, talking about Sri Lanka, travelling etc and he introduced me to some local mangoes and something called a Wood Apple - which is weird but after a while you get used to the taste!<br />
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My evening meal was across the road from the hostel at Mr Crab, the freshest seafood in town, and I paid the high price of 6gbp for grilled prawns in garlic butter, chips and salad! It was yum!<br />
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I left for Colombo the next day (yesterday) and by the advice of Latta took the local bus (all of 20 rupees - when 171 is one pound) to Negombo Bus station, and then the local bus from there to Colombo which was 56 rupees. I managed to haggle a tuttuk driver down to a very good price and checked into my hostel along Galle (pronounced Gawl) road, near the beach front, which is very plush at 13 pounds a night, where I will await Tashya's arrival!<br />
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At lunch I ate at a very local place where all the men couldn't believe a foreign girl was eating with her hands, and she does it so well they gasped! Last night i went down to Galle Face beach front where it's tradition amongst the locals to hang out, fly kites, eat speciality snacks and watch the sunset, I obviously also tried those speciality snacks. Today I will head down to Fort area probably and check that out, not before having some more delicious cuisine!<br />
P.S Photo's will be added once uploaded!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com1Colombo, Sri Lanka6.9270786 79.8612430000000596.8009751 79.69988150000006 7.0531821 80.022604500000057tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-40755061430938524722017-01-04T23:43:00.000-08:002017-01-08T23:44:19.770-08:00Sunrise no.2, Mt. Popa, pool-time, temple sunsets and NYE - Bagan Style!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, another sunrise, we left at 5.30am, and was promised a return ride by our driver (more on that later), and we climbed in the dark up to the 3rd level of Shwesandaw temple (sunrise temple) as the 4th level was too crowded. We managed to get some good spots and we watched another iconic sunrise; though I must say, me and Netta agreed we preferred the sunrise from yesterday - there was somehow more colour/more mist and a better view! But it was still awesome. We then went to go get our taxi back but he was no-where in sight! Turns out he couldn't be bothered to wait so sent his friend in another car to come collect us, who luckily found us lol.<br />
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Then today the plan was to relax a bit before Cat and Meghan, a Canadian living in Japan who we had met on the boat sunset trip, arrived to spend some time by the pool with me at the hotel. We stayed around the pool until 2pm, by which time me and Cat had booked a tour to Mt Popa to watch sunset there. The taxi picked us up at 3pm and after a loooong pickup and a looooong bumpy drive there (it took almost 2hrs) we arrived, with enough time to peg it up the 700+ steps to the top before the sun set. Mt Popa is an extinct volcano with a temple perched on top. There were monkey's everywhere and the sunset was glorious - yet again! We then raced it down as the monkey's were all going crazy at dusk and we didn't want to get bitten by any. On the way back to the taxi we got a little lost and ended up by a growling dog who stopped us from going up - but luckily this growling dog made us so nervous we turned back and found the right way back and managed to catch the amazing colours behind Mt Popa.<br />
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That evening I just went for dinner at that cute little restaurant next door and had a good looooong sleep - because the last two sunrises had been after 5hrs sleep!<br />
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It was then New years eve, and after a morning ebiking (I was on the back of Meghan's - great driver), around Nyaung-U township seeing some temples and a market, we lazed by the pool before deciding how to start the nights celebrations! Meghan drove me over to Ostello Bello to save me one taxi fare and after a mad panic because no where could get me a taxi back at 1am, i managed to book one through the hostel for 15,000 kyat - NYE eh - rip you off everywhere! Me, Cat and another girl from hong kong who was with us at Mt Popa, all decided to do the sunset boat trip again, because - what better way to start New Years celebrations than with a sunset, drink and food and a great group eh? I also randomly re-met the american guy who i shared a taxi ride with to the bus station in Yangon! So we all did the boat cruise together and it was great - Cat and I were pissed by 7pm haha.<br />
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We all, with our newly formed group and Meghan, went out for a meal when we got back, and bought some bottles of rum and whiskey to drink, however we were told we weren't allowed - but there's nothing a cheeky pour under the table can't overcome eh? I had a lovely Thai curry and then we all ventured over to the hostel to pre drink before we were allowed up to the roof-top party to bring in the New Year. We had so much fun and had drunk more than we anticipated. However the great thing was, when I went to get my taxi back, there was another group heading back the same way, so instead of paying 15,000 i just paid 2000! woohoo! Happy new year!<br />
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My last two days in Bagan were spent making use of the pool, and blogging/booking flights, planning my next move. I also spent another afternoon biking around the temples and went for sunset at Buledhi temple where i met an American couple and a Chinese girl who made the long wait in the blaring sun and my dehydration more bearable (I had accidentally offered my only source of water up to the gods of the temple - it fell). P.S bare with me while I get the pictures uploaded - i will update the blog with them once done!<br />
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Then on the 2nd November I took a nightbus back down to Yangon, spent a day celebrating Independance Day around the small villages near my airport hostel with a lovely Danish girl, and then took an evening flight on the 4th to Bangkok, where i spent 24hours, getting my fix of Thai curries, 7/11 and a massage!<br />
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It was then onto Sri Lanka! My time in Myanmar had been amazing; it's untouched beauty, friendly people who look at a foreigner with wide eyes and smiling faces (the women were always the most happy to see a foreign face, I'm not sure why), it's slightly weird but wonderful food, and it's charming day-to-day life, plus it's utter chaos at times. It's still an up-and-coming country and it still has it's faults (while i was there, fresh fighting was beginning again making once-visitable places become off-limits again), with a still very pro-military government that even Aung San Suu Kyi still obviously fears and is opressed by. Most people look to her as a saviour, but as a foreign secretary, and under a government still very much tied to the old one, she cannot do as much as she would like. And this is tearing the country apart again. I am so glad i got to see the areas that will become more and more touristy - before they are touristy. However i would love to come back when the country is more stable and under a completely new government with no ties to its horrid past, to visit the places that are off-limits now. It has only been open since 4 years, and already in those 4 years it has made much progress, but it will take a long time for it to become stable, out of poverty and completely visitable. However, I hope in that time, it will not lose it's untouched beauty, i really hope they sensibly develop the country, but unfortunately, like it's counterparts Thailand, Laos etc, it will fall prey. So I urge those of you wishing to see it in all of it's present glory, to go now, because in 10-15 years, it won't be the same country. In some ways that is great, for the people will know they are out of hard times. But already, in places like Bagan, Inle you can begin to see the bad changes. For all of it's flaws though, politicially and ethically, the beauty of it's landscape and it's people who persevere and want for the better times outweigh them - it truly is an amazing country!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Old Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)21.1717271 94.858545821.156920099999997 94.838375800000009 21.1865341 94.8787158tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-70505795644170349362016-12-29T22:51:00.000-08:002017-01-08T22:52:35.467-08:00Sunset no.1, Sunrise no.1, kids and Temples-galore!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bagan, oh sweet Bagan. I loved this place and it will hold a special place in my heart, I think this plus my trekking will always be the highlights of Myanmar.<br />
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We (me and Cat) arrived at 1pm after a bumpy, packed minibus ride, trying some more snack foods at the stop-off like quails eggs and chili mango.<br />
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So Bagan is different to other places and because it is a heritage area, it has 3 main townships around the archaeological zone/plains. Every tourist upon entering the main township of Nyaung-U (pronounced Nung-oo) has to pay a 25,000 kyat fee ($20) for 5 days to be able to access the area. There is no way around it unless someone from outside the area gives you their card which isn't out of date, and you just say you left and came back. But they can still make you pay again. It's supposed to be going towards UNESCO to maintain the area, but no-one knows where it actually goes with the government of Myanmar, but hey-ho, you have to pay so cough up!<br />
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So Cat was staying in New Bagan, which is a new township created when the government decided to kick out all the residents from around the old bagan area. It has less character but it's where all the mid-range guesthouses/hostels are. Old Bagan, is where most of the main temples are by the river, but also makes way for the exclusive, expensive resorts, as it's the gateway to most of the temples and close to the central plains. I was staying just outside of Nyaung-U, which was the main centre, for all the transport, markets and local life, close to the central plains, plus had the famous Restaurant Street which was like a non-nightlife version of Pub Street in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was around a 20min e-bike or taxi ride away from Cat, but we made plans to stay in contact - I would use her for the social aspect of her hostel and she would use me for the lazy days at the pool! Yes, for $20 a night, I had a 5-bed dorm in a 4* hotel, Royal Hotel Bagan, with a swimming pool and a buffet all-you-can-eat breakfast - score! I would definitely recommend it, for the amazing staff alone. Ostello bello where Cat was staying, wanted $44 a night for a 4-bed dorm or $36 for a 6-bed dorm, no pool!<br />
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The first day was settling in, I had lunch at a cute little restaurant next door where I struck up a little friendship with the staff and went back to again and again on my 5 night stay. Put some laundry in and then Cat had signed me up to the Sunset Boat Cruise with the hostel. So at 3.30pm I took a taxi (7000 kyat, ouch) over there and she had a beer waiting bless her! We were then loaded onto a shared taxi and carted over to old bagan where the boats awaited. We tried out some local river-market food too, mostly all deep fried things like corn, okra, potatoes, chili, and I got some prawns. Then we made sure to pick out the boat with the toilet! Haha.<br />
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The trip included a free beer and then we were surprised with also free deep fried snacks and...a free bottle of Gin and Rum plus coke and sprite...time to get on it! for 7000kyat ($6) it was well worth it. We then set sail for the middle of the river where we joined some other sunset-seekers and settled into our snacks and drinks while watching a beautiful sunset! It was a great introductory to Bagan and a good first night.<br />
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After we got back to the hostel, the little group that we met went out to a vegetarian restaurant in new bagan for a meal and then it was time to get my taxi back. The others had all signed up for sunrise and a bagan tour on ebikes, but because I wasn't keen on them, I was planning on getting a taxi for sunrise and a bicycle around the temples. So most people chose an E-Bike as the government of Myanmar don't allow tourists to hire Mopeds or Motorbikes, just because of the accidents, which personally, i think most south east asian countries should adopt unless you have a license for one. Especially around Bagan, as most of the temples are on very sandy dirt tracks and even with E-bikes and bicycles its dangerous!<br />
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So an E-Bike is basically a scooter, just not motorised (it's run by electricity) so it packs less power and less speed which makes it slightly safer. My track record with these things though is poor after many accidents in Thailand, so I took one look and said, nah, something was telling me not to do it so I listened to my gut instinct. And it was made even more solid when I met Shaun, a Singaporian, that night, while trying to book a taxi for sunrise. He had fallen off his ebike that morning (in-fact, drove it into an electricity pole) and had scraped himself up pretty bad. So he asked if I would like to share a taxi, as he was getting one for cheaper than what the hotel was offering, so of course I said yes - anything to make it cheaper and it meant some good company. So we chatted for a while, he gave me his new hotel address which was just down the road, and then I went up to bed, we were aiming to meet at 5.30am! When in the dorm I then met Netta, a Kiwi, who in the morning got up for sunrise and asked how I was getting there, so i said come join our taxi ride! So then there was 3 of us which worked out roughly 3000 kyat each return ($2-3).<br />
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So that morning at 5.30am we trundled half asleep down to Golden Bagan Hotel where we met Shaun and he showed us a temple he had heard was pretty good for sunrise and less popular than the main sunrise temple. Basically, any temple in Bagan was good for sunrise, so long as it was facing east, had a view over the central plains and had at least 2 levels to be able to climb up and see out. However, this temple was definitely my favourite out of the two temples I viewed sunrise from. It was Low Ka Oushang Pagoda, just off to the side of the main Sunrise temple, Shwesandaw. It was supposed to be less touristy but I guess the internet did it's thing and has made it more popular now, but it was still good and you could get your own slice of space. We paid the family who wake up early to open up the pagoda and we headed up those well-known steep pitch-black temple stairs to the top level. And then we waited; for what was probably one of the most incredible sunrises I've ever seen. Bagan is known for it's amazing sunrises over a plain of ancient Temples and Pagoda's shrouded in early morning mist, as far as the eye can see. And when the sun begins to come up, around 20 hot air balloons grace the sky over temples, making it super iconic. Those pictures advertising Myanmar - yep, that's basically what you get and it's every bit as spectacular in person as it is in the pictures - in fact, it's so pretty and mystical and inspiring, you almost want to cry. However, maybe that's also to do with the hour you're up at! We also counted the amount of USD in the sky - with around 20 something balloons, each with 12 people paying $350 each for just half an hours ride, it was around $90,000 usd - wowsa!<br />
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A little history of Bagan;<br />
From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone. However, Bagan is also a major earthquake zone, and so because of this, only 2200 temples survived to present day, there are lots of ruins around. In August 2016, there was another earthquake which badly damaged 400 temples and pagodas, so Unesco as well as local donations (the locals pay SO much into their temples and pagodas and also help with the restorations voluntarily, along with Monks) are trying to restore these.<br />
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The central plains really are a sight to behold and I would go so far as saying, it's better than Angkor Wat. You can cycle for days and not even see half of them, the main temples are stunning in themselves however what really makes it is cycling down little dirt tracks to deserted tiny temples where you will find no-one else. It simply is magical and I urge anyone wanting to go, to visit now before tourism booms beyond recognition - which I think will A. ruin the atmosphere and B. ruin the temples and nature around them.<br />
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So we then headed back to the hotel once the sun and the area was well and truly awake, had our amazing buffet breakfast (there was the usual; toast, fruit etc, then there were rice, noodle, stir-fry and soup dishes with some ACTUAL REAL COFFEE). And I decided as I was up and caffeinated, I would do a day around the temples. So I went and found myself a bicycle hired by the hotel ($2 for the whole day), which was a major mission as no-where had a bike in my size and so when I found one, I made sure I grabbed it! And then it was onto the chaotic roads, which actually wasn't too bad - the only bad thing was all the honking to let you know they were overtaking, the buses almost knocked me off with their horns! I headed first down to some of the main temples and then veered off towards the river to some of the lesser-known and more deserted temples, which was amazing. One temple found me cycling down a tiny dirt track through a corn-field, no-one else in sight, I loved it!<br />
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I then stumbled upon a temple behind a pumpkin field. It was here that I had the best experience ever and I met Tim. Tim was with the local children (children tend to hover around the temples trying to sell you things - namely postcards), and he was sorting out some rope. I was super curious so asked what he was doing. Turns out he had come by yesterday and ended up breaking their tyre swing! so he had bought some rope and promised he would come back to fix it today. Seeing what a big mission it was I offered some help and turns out he required some braiding skills to make the rope stronger. So for the next hour or two, I helped braid the rope together, while the children (Ayeaye, Kankan, Poepoe, & Susu) helped me hold it together and we chatted and played. Once we had got the swing up and operational, plus able to take the weight, the kids were overjoyed! We also played some skipping games with the leftover rope. Then they noticed our cameras and wanted lots of selfies taken and then they decided that wasn't enough and they wanted to take photo's so they took both Tim's phone and my Camera and went snap-tastic. Looking back over them I had hundreds of random but cute pictures of pumpkins, flowers, them playing, of me, of us altogether and of trees and the temple. It was the best morning ever!<br />
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It was then time for us to leave as Tim had to go meet a friend and I needed to go grab some lunch. Before we left they also offered us some Myanmar snacks to say thank you. I'm not sure what they were but they described them as 'pancakes', all I know was they were lovely and sweet!<br />
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Riding into Old Bagan I met Netta who was also cycling around before her trip to Mt Popa that afternoon so we did a temple together before she had to be back. I then spent the afternoon around Old Bagan and cycled into the Central plains, where I saw more temples than I've ever seen in my life before! I stopped for some delicious local noodles outside Shwesandaw temple, and after climbed it's 4 levels of steep steps to take in the most amazing view. I went to the Sulameni temple which had been badly destroyed in the August Earthquake and witnessed the locals all helping to carry down bricks and help restore it. I loved the Sulameni, even in it's semi-destroyed state, it was beautiful!<br />
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I visited some other temples big, small and deserted, along the way to the 'Sunset' temple where I planned to watch sunset, however I totally didn't estimate how far away it was from my hotel, and I wouldn't have made it back before dark (and Bagan is completely dark so it would have been impossible and unsafe). While there though I met Simon, a french guy, who I later had dinner with that evening. And after climbing the most busiest steps ever - you had to que to get up them - it was a very popular temple. I decided not to chance it and went back to my bike to make the long dusty journey back - as some of it i had to walk as there was too much thick sand to cycle in!<br />
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The only good thing about this though, was getting to see the sun set behind some amazing temples accross the plain, which may have actually been prettier than watching it set over them, and with no crowd in sight. I managed to make it back just as it was getting dark and then freshened up and went out for a local meal along 'Restaurant Street' with Simon. I then booked another taxi for tomorrow morning to view another sunrise, this time from shwesandaw - as they say you should do at least one there, and I was gonna make the most of my $20 fee! I met at the dorm an American girl who had just arrived and also Netta was keen for another sunrise, so it was three to share again and some more great company! It was then early to bed again...for sunrise numero dos! I had had an amazing day and couldn't wait for day number two!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Old Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)21.1717271 94.858545821.156920099999997 94.838375800000009 21.1865341 94.8787158tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-17879479752198682522016-12-28T19:57:00.000-08:002017-01-01T21:13:08.503-08:00The Road to Mandalay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Mandalay, famed by the poem of Rudyard Kipling, which for those who haven't read it, see below. It definitely has a catchy rhythm and it holds a little of that Mandalay charm.<br />
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<tr><td><span roman="" style="font-family: "times new roman";" times="">BY THE old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,<br />There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;<br />For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:<br />"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay! "<br />Come you back to Mandalay,<br />Where the old Flotilla lay:<br />Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay ?<br />On the road to Mandalay,<br />Where the flyin'-fishes play,<br />An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!<br /><br />'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,<br />An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat - jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,<br />An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,<br />An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:<br />Bloomin' idol made o' mud<br />Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd<br />Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud!<br />On the road to Mandalay...<br />
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When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,<br />She'd git 'er little banjo an' she'd sing <i>"Kulla-lo-lo!</i><br />With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek agin my cheek<br />We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.<br />Elephints a-pilin' teak<br />In the sludgy, squdgy creek,<br />Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!<br />On the road to Mandalay...<br />
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But that's all shove be'ind me - long ago an' fur away<br />An' there ain't no 'busses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay;<br />An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells:<br />"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."<br />No! you won't 'eed nothin' else<br />But them spicy garlic smells,<br />An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells;<br />On the road to Mandalay...<br />
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I am sick o' wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones,<br />An' the blasted English drizzle wakes the fever in my bones;<br />Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand,<br />An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand?<br />Beefy face an' grubby 'and -<br />Law! wot do they understand?<br />I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land!<br />On the road to Mandalay...<br />
</span><span roman="" style="font-family: "times new roman";" times="">Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,<br />Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;<br />For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be<br />By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;<br />On the road to Mandalay,</span><br />
<span roman="" style="font-family: "times new roman";" times="">Where the old Flotilla lay,<br />With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!<br />O the road to Mandalay,<br />Where the flyin'-fishes play,<br />An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay !</span></td></tr>
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Most people who come here aren't really charmed by Mandalay, a bit like Yangon it's a hit or miss place. But with the right group and a little sightseeing in the old ancient cities further afield than the new city boundaries, it really holds a charm. There are ton's of dazzling Pagoda's in Sagaing, a monastery where you can watch the morning alms giving, Inwa where the old temple ruins are seen by traditional horse and cart accross a short river trip, and the famous U-Bein bridge in Amarapura, the longest teak bridge in the world. There are also some charming city sights too and just walking around the city markets can be a highlight, while trying all the different foods and fruit on offer.<br />
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I caught a 5.30am bus from Hsipaw to Mandalay, down some serious mountain edge roads and got to Mandalay around 1pm. I got a shared taxi (normally like a big tuk tuk/pickup truck which is what the locals use) and headed straight to my hostel to check in and then went off on a half day around the city.<br />
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It was Christmas eve so I thought I'd do a few sights, then head up to Mandalay hill for sunset and then the hostel was putting on a buffet feast for Christmas.<br />
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I went on a walk to the palace, which was nice but mostly reconstructed as it was bombed in WW2 and its a very long walk for not much. Plus, since the military rule of Myanmar its basically been used as an army compound ever since - its weird as there are restricted areas, you are only allowed to walk down one street, see the palace and then walk back up, there's also only certain areas/places you can photograph; they make sure they take your passport/ID before entering the 'compound' just in case you disobey the rules!<br />
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I then started my walk towards and up Mandalay hill to be ready for sunset. There was some kind of celebration going on there too, I was unsure what but there was a dressed up elephant, some dressed up cows and also some dressed up people and loud music!<br />
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The way up was lots of steps, through little shrines and took around 30mins, also past the dog sanctuary where there were teeny tiny puppies! Once up I was kinda early, so I took a walk around the huge temple and then awaited in my spot for sunset. Because it was Christmas Eve, it was super busy up there so you had to fight for some space.<br />
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I then, begrudgingly got a motorcycle taxi back to the hostel as it was too far to walk. But the guy listened to me when I said, slowly and carefully, and it was actually a pleasant ride, watching the colours change in the sky over the palace walls. Then it was Christmas Party time!<br />
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I met an awesome group of people that night and we actually stayed together over the next couple of days and Cat became my week-long buddy! I re-met Anish, who I met on the circle line in Yangon and we all had an awesome night along with some others. There was an all-you-can eat buffet plus 3 alcoholic drinks for $15, a little pricey but we made sure we got our money's worth. Then there was Burmese Bingo where all the staff got little Christmas presents and the winner won $150, which is alot of money for them. Then there was normal bingo for the rest of us which became quiet competive. We stayed up until around 1am, and the hostel gave us all a little Christmas present to open at midnight, which was a lovely 'Friend' Bracelet which I've been wearing ever since.<br />
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The next day we all wanted to hire a car to go and visit the old cities of Mandalay and U-Bein bridge at sunset, however a half day would never have covered it, so we decided to postpone until tomorrow and instead walk around the city and find some charming markets. We visited the famous Gold-leaf making 'factory', it was more a house. Where they taught us how they made it and what they turned the gold-leaf into - such as tea sets and the likes. On the way we sampled some of the famous Mynamar fried street delights; little deep-fried donuts and deep-fried Corn, which are dipped in some kind of melted cane sugar sauce.<br />
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Then we made our way to a famous market near the hostel. We spent the whole afternoon just walking around, sampling different fruits (my favourite is pieces of Guava, mixed up with a chilli salt - the sweet of the fruit mixed with the salty chilli is delicious!). We also sampled some of the Myanmar sweets - basically pure sugar, some mixed with tamarind, some mixed with coconut, and some jelly-like. It's great as they all let you sample without buying which is a great way to test the water! Then we sat and had a drink - the famous Myanmar Avocado drink - which is a whole avocado, chopped up and mixed with coconut, condensed, evaporated and normal milk. It's delicious but super filling. It was definitely a different but awesome Christmas day - and spent eating which is what it's about right?<br />
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Then we all came back to the hostel and freshened up - I watched an awesome sunset on the hostel rooftop - before heading out for our Christmas Day Meal! We decided to go to one of the more 'upmarket' restaurants (still only cost us $4-5!) and pig out. They had a 'traditional' turkey meal but I opted for the Noodle hot-pot, which was delicious. There was a few mix-ups with our meal due to the lack of English-speaking staff, but we got through it and eventually got what we ordered, it's all a part of the fun! It was also super festive as they were playing Christmas songs and the trees behind us had been decorated with lights. It had been a great Christmas day spent with some awesome people and I looked forward to our boxing day day-trip tomorrow!<br />
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So we ordered our taxi for 9am, but instead of bringing the small car they brought the more expensive bigger car - there was only 4 of us so we didn't need this so instead we hired the guy with his car accross the road, who turned out to be an amazing guy!<br />
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It was 40,000 kyat (around $30) for the whole day. He first took us to a wood carving place, and a place where they make silk Longhi's - which were great because you could go around and watch them work, look at all the designs etc - without being pestered to buy anything which is unlike any other asian countries! In fact, at the wood carving place, me and Cat spent most of our time petting a cute resident kitten.<br />
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It was then onto the Monastery, near Amarapura, where we watched hundreds of Monks taking part in their alms giving ceremony - where they collect their daily food in their alms pots, from community donations. We also got the opportunity to walk around the monastery which was great as we got to see where they lived.<br />
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Then it was onto the ancient temple city of Sagaing - which is where we realised our car was typical Myanmar and the wheels weren't lined up, so we were swinging all over the place, and his driving was crazy - but it's Myanmar right, it's all part of the experience! We went over one of the famous bridges constructed by the Japanese during the war, Ava Bridge, which provides a fantastic view over Sagaing; with all the hundreds of dazzling, glittering golden pagodas and temples over the hilltops. He took us to a couple of big temples before going up to Sagaing hill where there's a view out over the hills towards Mandalay - a little hazy in the dust, but you get to see all the golden tops of pagodas below. Myanmar really is a place where golden pagoda's or old temples are like what vending machines are to Japan! There are soooo many of them.<br />
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After this it was time for lunch, which was fried noodles in a restaurant down by the river, where after we crossed by boat to the even more ancient city of Inwa. Here it was mandatory to tradition that after the short boat trip, you hire a horse and cart to take in the temple ruins. It was a slow and very bumpy ride around, and Cat and Alex's poor horse was super tired (I usually hate taking horse and cart, because I hate seeing overworked horses, but it was the only way to get around the tiny narrow bumpy roads of Inwa) but there were some stunning places to see, the temples were like smaller Ankor Wat temples. It was almost 4.30pm by the time we had finished our tour of Inwa, so we headed back accross the river and accross another Japanese bridge, Inwa Bridge, towards Amarapura, home to U-Bein bridge. This bridge is famous to do at sunset, and built in 1850, it's the oldest and longest Teak-wood bridge in the world.<br />
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Our driver dropped us off and due to the amount of crowds at this time, and the limited time before sunset, we tried to walk accross to see it from the 'famous spot' but it was just impossible so instead we went down and picked our own glorious spot for sunset, just by the water on the east side. I understood why it was so famous, the colours of the sun as it slid down behind the bridge, silhouetting it against the horizon was just spectacular - Mandalay does the BEST sunsets!<br />
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Then we stopped by a local place overlooking the bridge for some well-deserved boxing day beers! Mine was a Mandalay beer - when in Mandalay - and it claimed to also be anti-aging, so here's to that! Then it was back to the hostel and a quick bite to eat down the road in a local Myanmar cuisine restaurant. Where you can order curry, with unlimited amounts of rice, side dishes, broth, salads. I just had a Pickled Tea-Leaf salad - that and a tomato salad are fast becoming a favourite of mine, they are just so full of flavour, light and mixed with lots of crunchy beans and nuts - delicious!<br />
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The next day I took as an admin day, applied for my Visa for Sri Lanka, and went in search of a laundry place (with no success), plus went to change up some more dollar at the bank (success, I even got a better exchange rate than the internet rate!) and went for a very local meal at a very local restaurant down the road where I tried Mohinga (a sour fish noodle soup), plus some prawn spring rolls - all for 1800 kyat ($1.20). The rest of the group came back just after lunch from their morning in Minguin and they needed lunch too so we went back to the same place and I had a typical Myanmar coffee (as sweet as a Vietnamese coffee yum!) - all the men there seemed to be doing it, it seemed it was a 'thing' to come at lunch have a coffee and some fried snacks, have a Burmese cigar or cigarette and chat for hours.<br />
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We then chilled on the rooftop, had a happy hour cocktail and played a few games of 'Around the world' Monopoly - sometimes, all you need is a game and a cocktail! Before saying goodbye to Alex and Franc heading off to Kalaw on their night buses, and an early night for our early morning bus to Bagan the next day with Cat. We were both wanting to do the slow boat down to Bagan, but it was super expensive ($42 minimum for 10hours), whereas the bus was 5hrs and $8! Plus it meant we could save our money to do more in Bagan, we planned to do a sunset cruise once we got there, so same same but different!<br />
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Mandalay had been a memorable experience with some wonderful people and I couldn't wait to continue down to Bagan, which would be even better!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Mandalay, Myanmar (Birma)21.9588282 96.08910319999995421.7231707 95.766379699999959 22.194485699999998 96.411826699999949tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-52182950906150221682016-12-23T00:43:00.001-08:002016-12-23T00:48:19.581-08:00Inle Lake and Hsipaw<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So our first evening we all went for a meal together to celebrate arriving in one piece.<br />
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The next day we decided to go hire bikes and head on up to the Vineyard nearby. You wouldn't expect Myanmar to have Vineyards right? But they do, and the wine is super tasty, you can really smell/taste those flavours!<br />
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I was still pretty ill with fever and headache and had broken out in a lovely full-body rash, but I wanted to do something so I braved it on up and looking as ravishing as I did, headed on up with the bikes, (at only<br />
1500 kyat for the day - $1.75) a little over 15mins cycling got us to our destination.<br />
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The vineyard was cute and it offered some amazing views of Inle Lake and the surrounding town. 5000 kyat each (around $3.50) got us wine tasting and cheese and bread, the bread was questionable but we were starving and starving, plus heat, plus wine - it could have been disastrous. They brought out the wine on platters for two, two white wines and two red wines, Savignion Blanc, Muscat, Shiraz and Syrah. All of them smelt exactly as they were described and they all tasted pretty damn good to be honest!<br />
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We then had lunch beneath the trees with the views of the lake beneath us, could of spent all day there! Rebecca, Matias and Marie, a French girl from another of ever smiles trekking groups, went in search of nearby caves, but me Alex, Charline and Luca decided to head back. Alex had begun to feel very ill; headache, fever, so wanted to get back. We all decided to square up our bill and left the money plus the 5% tax for the guys who were staying however, we had just met them and they somehow didn't trust us. Aaron the English guy decided we weren't leaving until we got the bill and made sure every last bit of money was there, even though all of us knew it was correct as we'd left more than what we owed. However he wouldn't have it, 30,000 kyat is no where near enough he exclaimed, said the guy who was holidaying and on his second bottle of wine shared with Marcus a German guy and having ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. Still we got the bill, added it up and yep, there was plenty, he was even trying to deliberately add up his items wrong (no, 14 plus 14 isn't 26) to see what he could get away with not paying. Oh and mate remember that 5% tax yea? Lordy. In the end we were released to leave.<br />
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We had planned to meet at 5pm got massages, so after an afternoon of chilling in bed I met the girls downstairs and we went in search. We found a place but they didn't have enough beds for everyone so we had to split up. I ended up going for an expensive aromatherapy massage (expensive being $18), but I was ill and I really needed it after the trek so I thought what the hell. They served me tea, the massage was lovely and after I had cucumber water with fresh orange cut into pieces, so cute! The others on the other hand decided to look for cheaper but ended up having a Burmese style massage which sounded awful lol. I think Christelle made an excuse when her masseuse got a call and stood up to say, that's it, I'm finished I'm done here! Lol<br />
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That evening I was too ill to go out for dinner with everyone so I just stayed in the hostel and chatted to the lovely Burmese girl working there about Mandalay and then went to bed early.<br />
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It was around midnight I was woken by Rebecca asking if I was OK, I was, just feverish and headachy, but it was because Alex had fallen severely ill and was displaying symptoms of Malaria, and she wanted to check I wasn't either.<br />
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Her and the Chileans Matias, Roman and Gonzalo stayed up most of the night caring for him as Charline wasn't sure what to do. They got his fever down a little but early morning it was back up fiercely so they took him to the local shack of a hospital where the doctor gave him antibiotics and some more paracetamol but it wasn't working.<br />
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By 7am when me and Rebecca awoke Charline had had no sleep at all and Alex was no better. So we went along to help and then they had decided the best thing was to get him to the hospital in Taunggyi which was 40mins away. Their guesthouse owners had been super bad about the whole thing but eventually helped them arrange a car to take us all there.<br />
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We arrived around 10am and its a pretty good hospital, the nurses were all waiting in reception pleased to meet us and shuffled us straight into the doctors room where Alex was seen straight away. They were very thorough and were checking for everything, Malaria, Dengue fever, glandular fever, etc. They did xrays for pneumonia, blood tests etc. All within an hour of being there.<br />
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They then decided the best option was to admit him for at least one night to observe his illness and to put him on an IV drip and intravenous antibiotics, if that didn't work, they would start Malaria treatment which would require 5 nights up at the hospital.<br />
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Unfortunately this meant they would miss their flight to Bangkok but this is nothing when you're Ill. They brought out all the paperwork for Charline to sign and then also a folder, with pictures and said 'choose your room', you get hot showers, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a private room, the price depended on the size, but even the smallest room had a couch for Charline to stay on and at $35 a night it was pretty good.<br />
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Me and Rebecca went off in search of a sim card and essentials they would need during there stay and then our taxi driver said he couldn't wait any longer, even though we wanted to stay we had to go back.<br />
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We kept in contact with them, checking how Alex was. He hasn't improved after 12hours on antibiotics and apparently his fever was going into the delirious/hallucinations stage and was in a lot of pain. So by text me and Rebecca just said, get them to start the malaria medication. There was no use waiting and even if it wasn't malaria it would do no harm, but if it was malaria they needed to start it asap. So that evening they started the medication.<br />
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Charline said he had a very bad night but thankfully in the morning his fever had started to go down. The rest of my time in Inle was spent booking my bus ticket to Hsipaw for the next day at 2pm and we also did a Christmas quiz at the hostel. Some of the others took a taxi the next day up to the hospital to keep them company but it looked like Alex was on the mend, after a very scary 48hrs!<br />
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I then got my bus, a grueling 16hrs to Hsipaw, a little town in the north up near the border with China. It was a local bus, I was the only foreigner on it, and we broke down twice (bad tires), air con set to freeze mode and Bollywood and Myanmar songs blaring out until 9pm. But I made it, was dropped off and collected by my hotel at 6.30am, where I just had to wait two hours before I could check into a room.<br />
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That day I spent walking around Hsipaw. I met a girl, Veronica, half Italian half German living in Switzerland. So we walked out of town to a village where there is a bamboo monestry and a place called 'Little Bagan' a few very old pagodas, ankor wat style with plants and trees growing out of them. We then spent lunch by the river at a local place, Black Coffee, which I am now spending my day blogging from - they do delicious Shan noodle soup and fresh lime juice.<br />
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We then went to the old Shan Palace, which is still in the family of the last prince. It is a story told by his nephews wife, who still lives there, even through the military ooccupation. He married an Austrian woman Inga who became a princess of Shan State. During the military occupation, he was captured and she and her daughters were placed under house arrest. Inga later managed to escape and leave Burma with her daughters but the government always denied his capture, and still to this day he is classed as missing - he was never found, dead or alive. And they family ate still searching. Inga later wrote a book about it, called Twilight over Burma and it was also made into a film very recently, which is banned publicly in both Myanmar and Thailand, so I've made a note to watch it and also read the book. The way the woman told the story really captured me and it made the occupation and the hard times in Burma very relateable when you hear one persons/family struggle.<br />
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We then hot-footed it to Sunset Hill as the sun was setting and we made it just in time to see the glorious colours explode over the hills of Hsipaw. It really is a beautiful area.<br />
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Today I wanted to buy a Longhi (traditional skirts worn in Myanmar) which matched everything in my backpack. Low and behold I saw the most colourful Longhi I have ever seen and because it holds every colour in the rainbow, it will match just about anything I have. So at 8000 kyat ($6-7) it was a Christmas present to myself. I then also had to pay 1000 kyat (under a $) to have it stitched up down the side so it was suitable to wear, but it was even more authentic doing that than buying it already made. I didn't mind the extra 1000 kyat then. I have then just spent the day lazing by the river at Black Coffee, blogging and reading about Mandalay, which is where I will be spending Christmas.<br />
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I then tonight will need to book my bus ticket (6hrs, 4500 kyat) and intend on going back to Yuan Yuan shakes (where we ate dinner last night) to have the famous Yuan Yuan shake which is delicious (Pineapple, passion fruit, mint, lemon, ginger) a great booster for my immunity which is rock-bottom at the moment! The doctor seems to think I have Typhoid Fever so I am on antibiotics, vitamin c, cough medicine and flora and fauna medication for my intestines and stomach. So I should be on the mend!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-7221554090518309132016-12-22T23:18:00.001-08:002016-12-22T23:18:54.627-08:00Excuse me, everyone...take your time but make it quick! Kalaw to Inle Lake trek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So my one day in the tiny town of Kalaw was spent booking my trek and getting the things I needed for it. So I booked with a company called Ever Smile. I had heard from various people, Trip Advisor, Facebook etc that they were one of the best trekking companies around. It was owned by a woman and she was very informative with information about the trek. It was 3 days 2 nights, the trek was a little bit up a little bit down most of the way, we would be walking roughly 20km each day, the 2nd day being the longest day and we would be staying overnight in local villagers houses. There would be 12 people per group which was just enough (I'm all for more people as you get to mingle a lot more on the trek) and it would be 40,000 kyat (pronounced Chat which I had by now figured out) which included all food, the guide and the overnight stays.<br />
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So after I signed up to start at 8.30am the next day, I went to the local market to buy a hat, suncream and lunch at a very local joint, which only cost me 400 kyat! Some gorgeous noodles - I have no idea what was in it other than chicken complete with the broth, pickled veg and tea set. I then bumped into Sam and Ryan, the lovely English couple I had met on the night bus the night before. I advised them to eat lunch there and we made plans to meet in the evening for food at another recommended place, a Nepali restaurant called Everest. The rest of the day I spent walking around the town, blogging and getting things packed for the trek!<br />
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At 6pm I ventured to Everest and ordered food, Sam and Ryan showed up and we also got chatting to a lovely American girl who was basically doing the same route as Sam and Ryan, I also helped them plan some of their trip, especially Indonesia with the tips from my travels. Travelling Asia after the first time I tend to find that you become a book of knowledge for people. Most people are travelling it for the first time so having been there already people tend to get as much information out of me as possible, and I love it! It brings back memories and makes me want to do it all over again.<br />
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My hotel had a curfew so I had to leave before 9pm, on the way home almost getting attacked by 4 stray dogs (it was a full moon) but luckily the locals came out to save me and got rid of them! Then it was early to bed for the trek the next day!<br />
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The hotel luckily had a free shuttle service to the office so I met a girl, Maria, who was also going with ever smile. Once we got there I met Rebecca, a fellow English woman who also booked the trek the same time as me yesterday so we and Maria got talking. Then it was time to split into groups and luck would have it, that we were somehow, like fate, all on the same side when she counted us as a group, and so our amazing group was formed. It was me, Rebecca, Maria from Spain who spoke Italian, French and English as a translator, Christelle from France, Charline and Alex from France, Elke and Ruben from Germany, Matias, Roman and Gonzalo from Chile, and Luca from Italy. I could tell it was going to be a great group from the start and we became such good friends over the next few days.<br />
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Our guide Pyu was awesome, he was full of beans, knew a lot of local knowledge and gave us great food. He later told us that most of the treks depended on the guide because the company have them a budget for each person to spend on food and accommodation and if they wanted to keep some of that money they would, and spend less on us. Luckily Pyu was an honest man and gave us more than enough, he even got a cake, as it was Christelle's 30th Birthday the first day of the trek!<br />
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The first day wasn't so hard, we mostly trekked first on local paths through villages and rice paddies, then through Forest, where we established Luca was great at helping us over logs and wet paths, spending lunch looking out over the most amazing views. Lunch was vegetable curry, rice and chapati's, with plenty of fruit and chips (crisps), Pyu never left us feeling hungry there was always extra! We had also established at this point a few of Pyu's cute phrases, for example, 'excuse me, everyone, can I have your attention' with his little hybrid accent and for pee stops 'Take your time but make it quick!'<br />
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After lunch was another 3hrs to our overnight village, we went through a beautiful mountainside village with amazing views and amazing people, getting a chance to glimpse at local life, a monestry, at the local school etc. We then walked for an hour along the train tracks which were still in use, so we had to make way for a train at one point. And then it was just through some local villages until we found our village. Maria had started to get blisters and had tripped at the railway tracks so she was beginning to feel a little worse for ware and I had begun to get a headache and a small fever.<br />
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We reached our local home stay and we had been given the upstairs of their house to sleep in, 12 mats and blankets all laid out for us...and a nice shack in the dark for a shower and pee breaks! It had begun to get dark at this point so we went in turns for the shower, which was basically a wooden shack, with a bucket of very very cold water, in the dark as the first few of us didn't have torches. Let me tell you, it was the coldest shower I have ever had - it was definitely an experience!! The next few people had torches and what they found would have been enough to make me never go in there - we had been showering with 3 huge tarantulas! Needless to say it took the others great courage to shower - I am so glad I didn't know when I was in there!<br />
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Then it was dinner time, which was a feast, they had cooked up fish curry with lots of vegetable curry dishes with rice. It was delicious, and Pyu brought out the final surprise which was a MASSIVE cake for Christelle's birthday, and kind of for Pyu too as his birthday had been a couple of days ago and didn't get to ccelebrate. It was amazing but it was huge and very sweet, the sugar actually woke me up!<br />
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Sleeping that night was hard, and I don't think many people slept very well which made it very hard the next day.<br />
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We were up at 6am, breakfast at 6.30 which was fruit, pancakes and tea coffee. Then we had decided to do the 'new' route which was less touristy as only ever smile knew this route, but would also be harder as it involved climbing a mountain at 7.30am. Let me tell you, it was definitely hard, especially with aching muscles and I still had a fever and headache. Maria still had some pretty bad blisters and it got worse throughout the day - we hadn't started well and it only got harder the linger we walked. However the views were amazing!<br />
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We spent the first two hours walking along the top of the mountain and then slowly walked through some villages and down. We passed fields of chili's and tea plantations, kids playing football in Manchester United and Chelsea shirts(?), buffalo roaming around in fields and hot hot sun. By our morning break Pyu told us we weren't even half way yet, and that crucified us! We had a good 5hrs of walking before we even had lunch, and then another 3hrs after lunch!<br />
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By the last 1.5hrs it got very very hard. Maria's blisters were so bad she was going to take a motorcycle to the village for the overnight stay as she could barely walk anymore, and me and Elke were walking together towards the end just absolutely exhausted, I had burnt a little too, even tho I put tons of suncream on. When we reached our lunch destination we were all so so happy!<br />
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Lunch was fried noodles and spring rolls and I made sure I had coffee, water, aloe vera juice, chocolate biscuits, all to make sure I had more energy for the afternoon trekking. I rubbed in the tiger balm, dosed up on the paracetamol and I was set to go!! 3 hours - we could do this!!<br />
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The first hour or two was through village fields and then Pyu said there was a river only an hour from the village, so, sensing we could all do with a cool down we went via the river and it was soooooo good! Even just to put your hot swollen feet into it felt refreshing. Some of the team namely the chileans and Rebecca and Pyu, got all the way in but I couldn't stomach it, especially knowing the cold shower awaiting us, one a day was enough! Lol I did have to splash water all over me and my scarf though, just to cool down.<br />
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It was then 1hr to our village, but it was the longest hr ever, and just when you thought it would finish, nope there's another dusty orange path to climb!<br />
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Upon arrival our new hosts greated us super happily and I bugsied the first shower as it was still light and got in straight away. While waiting for dinner we had a lovely chat in our room upstairs exchanging travel stories while rubbing tiger balm into our legs and feet, stretching and lying down relaxing, hot swollen feet in the air!<br />
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Getting up for dinner was a struggle, stiff as a doorknob! Again dinner was fantastic another range of curried dishes and flambé banana for desert using very strong Myanmar alcohol (I think something like their version of moonshine). Then it was early to bed for day 3 - the final day!<br />
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Both Maria and Elke had very bad blisters on their feet so decided to take motorcycle taxi's the whole way to Inle Lake. The rest of us geared up, achingly for another day of trekking - just 5hrs today but all in one go before lunch!<br />
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Breakfast was great again, today we were allowed a half he lay in so we left around 7.30am, it was still very foggy so it was actually very mystical, and scary with all the gigantic spider webs around with their scary looking poisonous spiders on. The first hour was mostly OK and when we reached the Inle Lake area we had to pay a park fee of 13,500 kyat (around $10) for UNESCO. It was then only 3hrs from here, the first half was on a road, which offered views of Inle lake in the distance. Then we stopped at a cafe for tea and biscuits to refresh and the last 2hrs were through bush and downhill climbing past rocks. Once we made it to our lunch spot we were all soooo happy! It was finished, we had made it, no more blisters or walking for days. We were already planning massages and the amazing hot showers we were all going to jump into straight away. Luckily we were all staying near each other in Naungg Shwe and so we'd still spend the next few days together, which is where the stories continue!<br />
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After lunch we said our goodbyes to Pyu and we split into two boats for our Tour over Inle lake. Inle lake isn't just a lake, iit's also a city, on a lake. People live on houses over the water, they have green tomato fields everywhere, harvesting fruit and vegetables on the water. There are pagodas, fishermen, amazing scenery. I wish I had had time to go out on another boat to see more of it but alas I didn't and so it is something I shall have to come back and do one day.<br />
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We luckily saw the famous fishermen who row with their legs - I think it's so that they can fish with their hands, and we saw the basket fishermen. So I was pretty happy as I had really hoped to see them!<br />
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We then all hopped off in the town of Naungg Shwe and hot-pegged it to our hostels (some of us stayed in the same place, Ostello Bello) where we must of spent about an hour in the shower!! My loaffer turned orange from all the dirt I scrubbed off!<br />
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All in all it was a fantastic, if not hard, experience. It wasn't so much the hardness of the trekking, it was the length of walking we were doing each day, which averaged around 22km a day (the 2nd day was around 26km) so it was tiring in the heat. I could definitely recommend it and I would recommend Pyu as a guide for sure - he was awesome!!<br />
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Our group had encountered some hard and challenging times, and we were yet to encounter some more together, but that's another story for another blog! However we got through it, our morale, the cheerfulness of the Chileans, the characters - we kept each other going and we made some awesome memories. I am actually going to miss these guys (in fact we talk regularly on our infamous group chat on Facebook) so I'm sure we'll all stay in touch! If there is anything I missed, let me know guys!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-66369682036904772202016-12-15T03:18:00.001-08:002016-12-15T03:18:32.952-08:00Untouched Myanmar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yangon, the old capital of Colonial Myanmar before it became riddled with civil war and corruption. What did I make of Yangon? Well, there are mixed reviews of Yangon, and I must admit, its not my favourite south east Asian city, it's big, it's loud, it's busy and it's dusty, but it does have a certain charm to it - mostly in that its not like most other cities where you get hassled everywhere you go. Nope Myanmar is still only an up and coming tourist destination. Its borders were officially (but with restrictions) open in 2012 and since then, many of us backpackers seeking untouched beauty have begun to venture to this mysterious land so beautifully shouted about by George Orwell. It is only 5yrs ago since we were allowed to enter and there are still restrictions in place in some states, that still have political unrest. For example most recently Rakhine state, but situations change everyday so a traveller here must keep eye on the officicial Myanmar government website for updates.<br />
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But for a country only so recently opened, it has a pretty good tourism scene already, and its almost as though it always had one. However, it's still very new to the aspects of the rest of south east Asia that ruin their ambience and I guess that's why we all come rushing in now, before it gets that way - for example, pestering you to buy things and do tours etc, there's definitely a presence, but its not a burden - yet! Because of that you are also a big minority, yes there are more tourists here every single year, but, there's still not enough to be such like the likes of Thailand, where you practically feel like a majority. And so the Myanmar people, are friendlier, more approachable and naturally more curious and I live that and that's what I wanted it to feel like!<br />
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You can also tell tthat its still in its developing stages. Accommodation is more expensive than the rest of Asia (more like $10-20 instead of $5-10 a night), but that's because there isnt a huge demand - yet, or competition. Also there are very few hostels, but these are slowly coming. There are more guesthouses in the smaller places and a few hostels in the cities. However food and daily living costs are even cheaper than mainstream Asia - if you eat local, and sometimes even in a restaurant.<br />
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Another thing I love? The lack of bars and alcohol. Yes you can find them but no the alcohol isn't 'as' cheap as you'd expect and no, there are no late night parties. And this is what I am beginning to appreciate with travel. Its cliche, but as you get older and as you go to more less developed countries, you begin to realise that partying isn't the be all and end all, yes it was great on my first trip, but now? I'd rather just have a good chat over a beer or two in a quiet bar and retire by midnight (or earlier) when it all shuts and then get up early to go explore. Sunrises are seen sober now, rather than stumbling home lol. But Myanmar, like India and its counter parts, has something I love even more, a tea culture. Every meal, every street side stall, has pots of free Myanmar tea for offer, you often see locals just sitting on the road on their little stools drinking tea by the pot load and eating little fried snacks. And before you leave you must have the tea they offer you (as long as its piping hot) as its a BIG part of their culture and super good for digestion I've been told!<br />
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So what is there to do in Yangon? Not much and in two days you pretty much see it all, but the best thing is just wandering the streets, trying the local food, shopping for things in broken English and sign language, getting lost in the maze of streets that is Chinatown.<br />
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When I arrived at the airport everything went super smoothly (it was hard saying goodbye to Pierrick for two months though!) My Evisa for $50 was approved a day after applying and at immigration they stamp it in straight away. It is still the only way to enter so make sure you apply before you get there - no visas on arrival!<br />
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I then collected my luggage, changed up some pristine US dollar into Kyat ($100 is a wad of cash like no other!) Yes, Myanmar money changers do still only accept pristine condition US dollar - there are ATM's now but some of the smaller towns may not have them or may not accept your card so always take some spare dollar, and for god sake don't crumple it! They inspect every note and if they don't like it, they won't accept it and I still have no idea why this is.<br />
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Then I grabbed a taxi to my hostel, Sleep In on 9th street in Chinatown, the taxi costing 8000kyat which is roughly $6-7 and I pretty much showered and slept as it was 9pm by the time I settled in.<br />
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The first day I decided to throw myself into it and do a day of sightseeing, and decided to walk everywhere. The first thing you notice as soon as you step outside the hostel door...the traffic. Traffic in Yangon is all day, every day and crossing the roads is mostly like India or Vietnam, just walk, only stop in the middle of the toad to assess, being sure to have eyes everywhere...or follow a local lol. And there are many big main roads in Yangon to muster up the courage to cross. So first I walked along Chinatown checking out the market along the way to Sule Pagoda, the markets in Yangon sell just about everything you can imagine and more!<br />
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Then I decided to do what must be done in Myanmar, take one of the very slow, very bumpy but very famous trains. In Yangon there is the Circle Line, which takes 3hrs to do a loop of Yangon and its outer suburbs. Its hot, its not the most comfortable and its god damn slow, but its worth doing if you have a spare afternoon or day and only costs 200kyt (like 20cents!) I met a good group of people there, a group from Kuala Lumpur and an Aussie. And after the rather interesting journey watching local life take place we went for lunch together at Feel restaurant, with traditional Myanmar fair - lots of little curry dishes and rice.<br />
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I then spent the evening at Shwe Dagon Pagoda, one of the biggest and most important in Myanmar. Its covered top to tail in gold leaf and its magnificent. I went for daytime/sunset/evening which is when its at its best. Then I took a taxi back to Chinatown, had a massage for $7 on 19th street and had a famous BBQ dinner there too - 19th street is full of BBQ street stools.<br />
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The next day I spent shopping, navigated the chaos of the Myanmar central post office to send a package home and spent some time researching where to go next. I decided to head up to Kalaw, a small hill station where you can do 3 day treks to Inle Lake, a lot of people I spoke to in the hostel said this was one of their highlights. So I booked the 'V.I.P' night bus for the next evening, booked some accomodation and then headed on up to the peoples park to take in the views of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda during sunset and at night. Its 300kyt to enter and they also have a musical colourful founrain show! Lol Then I went in search of local food on my street - which ended up a feast at $1.50 for 10 BBQ sticks, noodles and egg pudding! Yum.<br />
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The next day I basically just hung around the hostel, with an american guy and german girl, had another massage too. I managed to convince the American guy to change his plans and head to Kalaw too so it meant we could share the taxi ride to the bus station together (which was a long way from the centre). He went for a different bus but I bet it was a mistake because the bus I got - JJ Express - well it was worth every $18 spent on it! It was a 9hr trip and I didn't sleep much as you never do on a bus, but it was like a plane; huge leather reclining seats, blankets, an individual TV screen (Madonna, Tom and Jerry and Myanmar films on repeat) food and drinks served by a hostess, tea and coffee, it was lush.<br />
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So my next part is a trek through minority hill tribes in Shan State. Myanmar has hundreds of ethnic minority groups, some which the government still try to suppress so its going to be good to get a very real local feel to Myanmar. We stay two nights in local homestays and its a 60km trek ending at Inle Lake with a boat tour. It was 40,000 kyat ($30-40) including all food and accomodation, guide and luggage transport, with Ever Smile, a local company owned by a local woman. So I will be offline until Sunday peeps, so thought I'd leave you this post in the meantime! :-)</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-20720419161478645372016-11-13T04:43:00.000-08:002016-11-16T04:44:43.110-08:00Himeji Castle on a Sunday afternoon and Takoyaki!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We arrived into Himeji around 12pm and decided to go straight for lunch. Pierrick's eyes wandered in the right direction and caught onto a lovely tiny local eatery with tiny little tables outside serving little balls of gooey deliciousness.<br />
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We saw the outrageously low price (25 of them for 600¥) and without knowing what they were (the ladies serving us knew no English what-so-ever) we grabbed 25 balls with all the toppings; dried fish flakes, spicy sauce and mayonnaise and tucked in! There was a kind lady who had heard our failed attempt to find out the contents and she wonderfully translated for us; they were pieces of raw octopus, cut up into tiny pieces and mixed in a gooey dough and then grilled in ball griddles; they are known locally as Takoyaki and are a speciality of the Osaka region. I can tell you, I'm not a big fan of octapus but my god they were delicious! So delicious Pierrick went and ordered 10 more for 250¥ - to give you an idea of how cheap these were, they sell the same thing in Osaka, 6 Takoyaki for around 400¥!!<br />
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We then decided to make use of the rest of this hot and humid day and go visit the attraction we had come to see - Himeji Castle. On the way there we just had to stop by the Sunday Street food market and pick up some Manju (sweet balls of donut filled with sweet red-bean rice paste) which were delicious, we had chocolate and cream cheese flavours).<br />
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Himeji Castle has been reconstructed over the years to get it looking tip top but it's absolutely stunning. Sitting atop a hill it looks out over the small city of Himeji like a Queen on her throne. At 1000¥ to enter it was a little pricey but for Japan's top Castle it wasn't so bad. The castle has withstood the world war air raids (the whole of Himeji was flattened, but somehow the castle survived) and has taken years to refurbish.<br />
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It was originally built during the Edo period and it was built to represent a Heron in flight, blinding white with upturned roofs to resemble wings. The detail in the architecture is exquisite and the little booklet they hand you gives you a detailed account of its defence mechanisms (slits for windows so arrows and bullets couldn't get through), triangle, square and rectangular holes (Sama) in the walls to allow for weapons to be fired through and extremely high walls which were built to be fire-proof, and were built with materials to protect the castle from rain wind and snow. The Japanese were way ahead than us Europeans for their castles - I've even noticed castles in Japan have 2 moats, an outer moat and an inner moat, both with extremely high banks making it very hard for attacks. This is definitely the best Castle I have seen yet.<br />
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The castle itself has 6 floors and you get to visit all of them. Though there is not much outside the view from the top is pretty impressive however the experience of being hoarded around like cattle was pretty tough. We had chosen the worst day to do it - a Sunday when families and tourists alike were visiting. Due to the high amount of people visiting that day they were limiting the amount of people on each floor and so most of it was a waiting game, and then a tight shuffle up some stairs. Definitely not fun if you are agrophobic - I should think weekdays were a better day to visit.<br />
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The history of the castle dates back to 1333 and was built first as a fort and then constructed as a large scale Castle. The castle grounds are just as extensive as the castle itself and we spent all afternoon wandering through. There were also picture opportunities with Ninjas, Princess Sen, Samuri, so it was a great day.<br />
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That evening we checked into our hostel (very traditionally Japanese and very quaint) and went to a local Udon restaurant recommended by Pong, the girl who ran the hostel. Pierrick found his happiness - happiness has a word, its Udon.<br />
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We then went to buy some local Plum Sake as we wanted to taste some (delicious but very sweet) and went back to the hostel (after checking out the Castle lit up at night) where we drank and chatted to some of the other guests staying there. We were also offered some free wine by some of the locals drinking at the hostel bar. In all we had a great day/evening in Himeji, again, a city frequented mainly by day-trippers but it certainly has a cute charm which leaves you wanting to stay a little longer.<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan34.815149 134.6853528000000333.981125999999996 133.39445930000002 35.649172 135.97624630000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-47287051176271161422016-11-12T03:53:00.000-08:002016-11-16T03:55:00.181-08:00Hiroshima - surviving the A-Bomb - and the stunning Miyajima<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Upon arrival at Hiroshima we took the sightseeing bus as it was free with our train pass and dropped our bags at the hostel in order to spend the rest of the day sightseeing.<br />
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A little background on Hiroshima. Many will know it's history, it's a sad, horrifying history, when at 8.15am on August 6th 1945, the city fell victim to the world's first Atomic bombing (along with Nagasaki later on). The entire city was levelled and hundreds of thousands of people instantly lost their lives. Those who miracously survived the bombing, suffered irreparable physical and psychological damage for the rest of their lives and even the next generation (unborn babies, children) are still suffering from indirect affects today.<br />
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With a blinding flash, the bomb was detonated 600 metres above the city centre. It generated energy so fierce, it produced an enormous fireball reaching over a million degrees Celsius, a high pressure of several hundred atmospheres causing an extremely strong blast thrusting outwards crushing buildings, blowing people through the air and reducing everything within a 2km radius to ashes in the intense heat.<br />
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Walking around Hiroshima today, you couldn't imagine how a city could ever recover from such an atrocity, flattened completely and now a thriving bustling city, both in tourism; educating the world in an atrocity which should never happen again, and in business and youth. Most people only spend a day or afternoon here but we spent the night as we wanted to know the city a little better. And it's a huge contrast by day and night!<br />
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We spent the afternoon walking through the city centre, through the various monuments erected in memorial in the peace park which flanks both sides of the river around the Memorial Museum, past the A-Bomb Dome - a building in the epi-centre which miraculously survived the bomb and is preserved forever as a reminder of how resilient Hiroshima's people were in that time and how they can build up again and keep living. Frozen in time it is a symbol of peace for its people.<br />
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We also visited Hiroshima Castle which was mostly reduced to rubble in the bomb (the foundations survived) and so it has been rebuilt to show a little of what it was before the war and during the Edo period.<br />
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We then walked back in the early evening, sun setting, via the Peace Park, a very fitting end to the 11th November - Armistice Day, a symbol of remembrance of the war and the people who's lives were lost. Well, it wasn't just Europe who saw significant loss of life during the war, the effects were global, and they still are today. Hiroshima was as much a tragedy of the war, as D-Day was or the Battle of the Somme - yet we are somehow detached from it. The most disturbing thing about it, was how planned it was by the USA. Why did they choose to drop the bomb on Japan? Well, Japan was in an extremely weak position by this point, so the US had 3 choices on how to end the war; invade the Japanese mainland, ask the Soviet union to join the war against Japan, or use the Atomic Bomb. Of course, the Atomic Bomb had never been used on humans before, it's affects had never really been studied. So why not end the war, plus do a little experiment. It's disgusting really.<br />
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Why Hiroshima you ask? To ensure the affects of the Atomic Bomb could be accurately observed, potential targets were selected from cities with an urban area at least 3 miles in diameter, and air raids in those cities were prohibited in preparation. The 4 chosen cities were Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata or Nagasaki. Hiroshima was thought to have been the first choice because it was the only one of the 4 cities that didn't have an Allied prisoner of war camp. Therefore, the US went ahead, and released a piece of hell that should never have been allowed to happen.<br />
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The Peace Park and the Memorial Museum were made as a reminder of what evils war can bring and a reminder that these bombs, or now nuclear weapons should not be allowed to exist. The damage by the a-bomb was so catastrophic that the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Japan, are fighting to show the world that they should be eliminated from the face of the earth. Promoting world peace, they built the monuments in the Peace Park to create and install peace in the minds of people. The path to peace begins with even the smallest steps. And we learnt all of this and so much more just walking through the Peace Park, tolling the Peace bell, and watching the school children of Japan, singing and honoring the victims at the Memorial Mound, where thousands of bodies were cremated in the days after the bomb and placed there. It was a sombre afternoon but a very prominent one, and travel comes not only with new sights and culture, but also with strong messages and history of its people, and lessons to never repeat history. Unfortunately the human race never really learns it's lesson.<br />
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In a more happier note, Hiroshima was a beautiful place, and it left a mark on us. Especially for its food that night! We decided what else should you try than the local speciality Okinomiyaki. A dish of a pancake, topped with cabbage, noodles, meat and egg with a most delicious sauce on top. We checked out some of the top places to try it and the one we found was a winner as soon as we entered. The staff were the friendliest people in the world, and even though they only spoke broken English they tried so hard to communicate with us and wanted to get to know us. The awesomeness of this restaurant was also that they cooked the food in front of you on a hotplate, Teppenyaki style! Pierrick instantly bonded with them over Dragon Ball - a very popular manga comic/TV show. Pierrick went for the house special which included Tempura squid in the deal, and I went with the classic pork and egg, with an extra topping of Oysters - which are world-class here in Hiroshima, and super cheap and huge! We also had pork and kimchi Teppanyaki, plus liver Teppanyaki. Everything was delicious and it was even better watching it being made right in front of you. The oysters were amazing, grilled to perfection, melt in your mouth, so fresh!<br />
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We loved it so much we kept ordering more things just to stay longer. However there came a point after two hours of eating and drinking that we had to leave - though the place was open til 3am!<br />
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We then took a walk through the nightlife district of Hiroshima, which is completely different to the daytime Hiroshima, not a tourist in sight, bright lights, buzzing. It was great to see a city that had lived through so much, carry on as though nothing had happened.<br />
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The next morning it was time to visit the Peace memorial museum. This further educated us on the bombing. Not only did it take you step by step of what happened but it showed the horrifying effects and stories. Children's burnt, bloody clothing, a bike reduced to molten metal, stone steps with a black shadow of where a person had been sitting before reduced to nothing, shadows on bricks showing the direction of the light/heat blast, watches stopped at 8.15am - the only thing left of its victim. A lunch box; its contents charred black, found under the charred body of a little school boy. Then it also goes on to show the after effects of radiation; cancerous body organs, scars of clothing burnt into the skin, pictures of victims burned so badly they died of their injuries days or hours after. The black rain that came after the blast, the city burning for 3 days, of children that years later developed lukaemia and cancer from radiation. Of unborn babies that were born with disabilities. One bomb had destroyed generations. It also educated you on how many of the victims were Korean, working in Hiroshima under forced labour, and also most of the victims were school children, forced out of school and into labour, helping to pull down buildings to decrease fire outbreaks during air raids.<br />
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At the end it takes you via books where each president, prime minister, foreign minister has written their prayers for world peace while visiting Hiroshima, and yet every one of those has continued acts of war, and developed and owns nuclear weapons far worse than the A-Bomb.<br />
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We then made our move to MiyaJima, an island located just south of Hiroshima. We were spending the night in a hostel in Hatsukaichi as Hiroshima was fully booked (Saturday nights are very popular in Japan and get booked out way in advance we are beginning to realise!) So we used our JR pass to get to Hatsukaichi, before the station guard told us we were no-where near our hostel, and needed to take a tram for 3 stops and then walk. By this time we were fed up as it was super hot (we have been so lucky with the weather so far!) and we were in a tiny local town with no idea where to go. However we were lucky enough to literally stumble upon the tram tracks and follow them up to the station, where we then jumped on the tram and later managed to find our hostel.<br />
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By this time it was 3pm, it didn't leave us much time to visit MiyaJima but we could at least see the main bits before sunset. So we hopped on the tram and then the ferry over to this cute little island.<br />
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Upon arrival we were starving as we hadn't had lunch yet, so we grabbed some local fried fare on the cobbled street and marvelled at the tame deer walking around! They were everywhere! I was acosted by one (be careful when eating as they will try to steal your food!) And head-butted by it as I wouldn't give up my fried chicken! Luckily it didn't have antlers. We then walked down to the famous floating Torii gate and walked around the beautiful old Edo-style township and the Japanese gardens with the fiery red Autumn colours of the trees. We decided not to pay the entrance fee into the temple as it was super crowded and we preferred to enjoy it from afar.<br />
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We then watched the sun fire purple colours across the sky over the Torii gate as the tide rose to show its full glory and walked the streets sampling grilled oysters and maple leaf cakes - very local delicacies before taking the late ferry back to the mainland. It had been a short visit and we would have loved to have stayed longer, maybe to hike the mountain - in hind sight we maybe should have spent an extra day there instead of Osaka but hey - leave something to return to right? Tomorrow it was on to Himeji to view one of the most symbolic castles of Japan.<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan34.3852029 132.4552926999999733.966231900000004 131.80984569999998 34.8041739 133.10073969999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-52105029093982924262016-11-10T04:30:00.000-08:002016-11-11T04:37:19.441-08:00Yatai, Robots and Disaster Prevention<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our next destination was Fukuoka (old name Hakata), and it was an early 2hhr bus back to Tokyo to get to the Shinkansen station. When we arrived at the bus stop though at 7am for a 7.10am bus the driver of another bus told us it had already left! Ensue 5mins of panic thinking we would have to wait ages for another bus, however the driver, over a little sign language and broken English and japanese between us, radioed to someone his end and then allowed us onto his bus as he was going the same way! Stroke of luck!<br />
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Once back in Shinjuku, we took the subway back to Tokyo Station and then went to the Shinkansen ticket office to activate our Japan Rail pass - unlimited travel on any Shinkansen (apart from the Nozomi fast one), plus all JR local rail, some ferries and some buses, for 14 days. Though when we activated it we realised it would terminate a day before we thought it would so we'd have to spend two nights back in Tokyo before we left.<br />
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Once we had activated it the lady told us the first train we needed, the Hikari to Shin-Osaka, was at 10.32...in exactly 5mins! So we rushed our way to the platform and to our reserved seats, and it took 3hrs to Shin-Osaka. Once there we had half an hour to buy lunch and make our way to the next train the Sakura, bound for Hakata. This train took another 2.5hrs and once there, it was a simple 2 stops on the subway to our central Hakata Canal city hostel. It was in an old historic covered shopping street and was very plush - again, Japanese hostels are really worth the money. You even get free toiletries and such - only downside is they make you make your own bed lol.<br />
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Once there we freshend up and decided to go do the thing we had heard about the most - Yatai! Yatai are tiny Street food stalls, mini restaurants with enough space for around 6-8 people. The guy at the hostel had told us a good one to go to which would have menu we would understand - unless you know Japanese these places are unlikely to have any English, so it's good to know one that does. As otherwise it's just hoping you like what you point at on the menu, as there aren't even pictures, we're talking super local. Fukuoka is famed for its Yatai and for its superb food so we were looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint.<br />
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The lady and it looked like her son, who ran the Yatai, were super friendly and gave us the English menu straight away. We went straight for starters and an alcoholic beverage - Sake and Yakitori. Fukuoka has a good selection of Sake and it was delicious, you can have it hold and cold, but we prefer it cold. It's basically a rice wine, made of fermented rice, a very subtle sweet taste and they gave you loads - it was a glass sat in a little coaster boat, and they deliberately pour the Sake over the rim so a little spills into the boat. The Yakitori we chose was pork and mince balls - delicious!<br />
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Then it was onto the next order, Kimche and Pork stirfry and fried pigs feet. We decided to go for something really local, but not too local like cow offal or whale meat! (Yes, they really did have that on the menu!)<br />
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Then finally we had baked Ramen, and a HUGE Asahi beer to share, which was delicious!<br />
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Part way through the meal a group of Japanese-Americans descended upon the stall, I think it helped that among locals they saw us - must be an English menu! Lol They were between the ages of 60-91 on an organised trip, there was actually a woman of 91 travelling by herself - hats off to her!<br />
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They were a lovely group and we enjoyed getting to know them over dinner. We then all decided we wanted ice cream for dessert so after finishing we all went to the local family mart - again me and Pierrick had no idea what anything was so we did a lucky dip and shared whatever we got. We then just walked around the area taking the sights in.<br />
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The next day the weather was pretty wet and grey, so we decided there wasn't much point walking around the city in the rain and so did some recommended inside activities - so we checked out RoboSquare - a free area where you can try out lots of different Japanese robots - some of them were old but still way more advanced than anything we had ever seen before - like the dog that can do things on command and speak to you and dance and pet it.<br />
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Afterwards we wanted to try out the Disaster Prevention Centre. We had seen it on a programme called 50 Ways to Kill Ya Mammy - a show where an irish irish takes his mum travelling and gets her to do daring things. Well when they are in Japan they go to a Disaster Prevention Centre and they had one in Fukuoka. It's actually super interesting and it's a mandatory thing for school children over here due to all the Typhoons, Earthquakes, Tsunami's, and Volcanic activity they experience here. It's a tour of one hour where they teach you how to escape a fire, how to use a fire extinguisher, an earthquake simulator and a typhoon wind simulator. It's actually something I never knew - like how to use a fire extinguisher - for example, we were supposed to be fire wardens for Manor House Backpackers as night Managers, but neither of us knew the first thing about fire safety! And it was interesting to experience what a natural disaster could feel like, as it's a very real thing when you travel - you never know when you may get caught in one.<br />
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After this it was too wet to do anything else and we were starving so we knew a good place back near our hostel to have something to eat, and for 730¥ we got a Udon noodle soup, Tempura and rice set which was huge! We then thought we would make use of the bad weather and book some more accommodation ahead of our further travels as it was likely to book up fast. And it was a good job we did as some places we are going to fall on a weekend - and it was fully booked or super expensive! So we had to figure out ways around it, change our plans slightly and book it all to avoid stressing later. It took us 6hrs to get everything sorted up until our return to Tokyo! Who said backpacking was easy? Sometimes it's like a full-time job - and super stressful!<br />
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So our next plan is Hiroshima, for one night and then down to MiyaJima for one night as we couldn't get two nights in Hiroshima, then a stop in Himeji, then Osaka and then Kyoto and Nara. In round-a-bout ways! As I'm writing this we are on our way to Hiroshima on the Shinkansen..a city that built itself up after the Atomic Bomb. More on that on the next post!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan33.5903547 130.4017155000000233.1673787 129.75626850000003 34.0133307 131.0471625tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-34342299691647021122016-11-08T05:47:00.000-08:002016-11-09T05:48:38.573-08:00Mt Fuji, Lake Kawaguchiko and Fuji-Q Highland Theme Park<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our day started early as we had to get the train for the bus at 8.45am. It was a bit of a mad rush but we made it. Our destination was Mt Fuji, Lake Kawaguchiko, one of the 5-Lakes around Mt Fuji, a very famous Volcano!<br />
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We arrived at 10.30 and made our way to our first experience of a Japanese hostel - which when travelling is all a part of the experience. It was absolutely lush, I can definitely recommend K's House Fuji View. We ended up getting a double bed in a deluxe dorm for cheaper than two single beds in a standard dorm. It was basically like having our own cabin, it was a bit like a pod hostel, with curtains so you had some privacy. The facilities were good enough to be 4*, there were hammocks, traditional Japanese couches, an outside terrace, a rooftop terrace, a kitchen which had cookers and fridges and gadgets that looked like they were made for outer space, super techy! Free tea coffee and jam, free Wi-Fi and best of all free views of Mt Fuji from the windows, it was great!<br />
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As we couldn't check in til after 3pm we had the whole day to do things so we decided to check out the area!<br />
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We took a short walk around some of Lake Kawaguchiko to take in the lakeside views of Mt Fuji and the beautiful red colours of the autumn foliage.<br />
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Then we took the train to Chureito Pagoda, which after 400-odd steps, has a stunning view from the Pagoda out over Mt Fuji. We stayed here for a while before catching the train back but of course! The train we wanted wasn't for another hour so we had to pay for the 'Tourist train' which was an extra 200¥ however when we boarded it was pretty lush with couch-like seats with viewing windows and free sweets!<br />
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We then went and checked out the local Japanese supermarket, which was basically a guessing game, for our dinner, breakfast and lunch the next day. We got some dumplings and noodles - simple yet good. And spent the evening chilling at our amazing hostel.<br />
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The next day we had planned to do the best amusement park in Japan - Fuji-Q! It holds 3 world records for 3 of its rollercoasters for speed, drops, length, number of inversions while on a ride etc. We tried the Fujiyama first and it was definitely the best one, it didn't throw you upside down but it did have the biggest height on a drop (79m) and it was intense, and also a very long ride, it was so much fun!<br />
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The next one held the record for the most number of inversions while on a ride - 14 times it turns you upside down 360°! It was the one that terrified us the most and it didn't disappoint, I was terrified! Every time I opened my eyes I was at a different angle, my head was bashed around so much I had a headache and the first drop takes you first down backwards (as the seats turn around) and then flips you around twice on the way down - it was intense physically and mentally, when you get off you feel like you have vertigo, I didn't know which way was up! Lol. And the best part, the picture, I have never seen a more funny picture in my life, we should have bought it, we looked petrified and it still makes us laugh, I didn't know Pierrick had such a large mouth, it was open so wide and we both had our eyes shut!<br />
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The 3rd world record breaking coaster was one for the steepest drop - 120° in fact. But that wasn't the part that was the scariest, it was that they didn't tell you that the drop was near the end of the ride, so you had to insure intense turns, a drop in the dark, all before your steep 90° climb up to the drop and it suspends you there for ages before dropping you, THAT was the scariest part. The best was hearing the Japanese guy who was yapping the whole way, fall silent and shout the only words he knew in English at the top - Hurry up!! Lol. After that the other rides in the park seemed soooo lame! I think going to a theme park elsewhere now will just be boring lol. It was an adrenaline filled day and because of that, plus the fact we had a whole day of travel ahead of us tomorrow, starting at 7.10am, we ended up going to bed around 9pm lol. The next day we were getting the main part of our travel out of the way by going all the way down to Fukuoka, before slowly making our way back to Tokyo. We decided to activate our JR Pass and first take the bus back to Tokyo (2hrs) and then the Shinkansen (bullet train) 5hrs. Just so that the rest of our trip is all short journeys of less than 3hrs. See you all on the next bullet train when I have time to write up the next blog post! (Yes, it really did take me 4hrs to write up all these posts, you better appreciate them! Lol<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7hNhYCDNVtosM6krp01OD78Iodd58FP6lhRDvcooyeLmD-xWrUC7RHlrZGpN0AnLNomCpvF4eO8cFq3-S66Wd5OfrMA4343NKzITjYZmjyihhBWdJdgIr8Oj8Uum3jxAKmSUmQOOx0be/s1600/IMG_20161108_140009149_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7hNhYCDNVtosM6krp01OD78Iodd58FP6lhRDvcooyeLmD-xWrUC7RHlrZGpN0AnLNomCpvF4eO8cFq3-S66Wd5OfrMA4343NKzITjYZmjyihhBWdJdgIr8Oj8Uum3jxAKmSUmQOOx0be/s320/IMG_20161108_140009149_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Lake Kawaguchi, Fujikawaguchiko, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan35.5170946 138.7517786999999335.4653951 138.67109769999993 35.5687941 138.83245969999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-59201713320340900972016-11-06T05:27:00.000-08:002016-11-09T05:29:18.367-08:00Love Hotels, Sashimi, Temples and Karaoke!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tokyo days 3-5.<br />
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So our 2nd day, Taka had to work, so we had the whole day, from 9am to 7pm, to wander around. We decided the first thing to do was head to Shinjuku, as A. We wanted to see it as we had heard it was a very famous area for eating and 2. To try out a Love Hotel. Yep, we had to. It was just calling our name, and as we had a day to ourselves we thought - why not! We probably couldn't afford a whole night in one, so we would just do a few hours for cheaper but the same experience. Now, most of the themed ones have been tamed now, as they are labelled as 'tacky' so instead most of them are very plush. For this who are unaware what a Love Hotel is, they are hotels with a 'Rest' or 'Stay' option. Mainly for business men hooking up with their lover, couples wanting privacy from their families (as houses in Japan are renowned for their thin walls) or expensive one night stands. It's basically a chance for couples to have, yep, some fun. It was too tempting not to try. So we found one which was within our price range and we went in. It's a weird concept. There is a screen with all the different rooms on, the prices for either 'rest' which is 6hrs or 'Stay' which is for the night. And the ones which are vacant are lit up, and the ones in use are in red. You then choose which room and package you want and press the screen. Then you go up to the counter and hand your money to the waving hands (yep everything is anonymous, you don't see them, they don't see you.) They hand you the key and off you go.<br />
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All I can say is the room was pure 5* luxury for around $50. There was a Japanese toilet with all the buttons (though by now these were a nessecity more than a luxury), you can wash your bum, play music, dry your bum, wash your girly parts, deodorise, electronically lift the seat, warm the seat - they really are amazing and you can spend way longer than you need to in a bathroom pressing all the buttons and being either pleasantly surprised or shocked.<br />
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Then there was a hot tub bath, a steam sauna shower room, lotions and potions, free tea and coffee, TV, and even a karaoke system! You could dim the lighting on different 'mood' settings. It was awesome. And of course, I stole everything I could fit in my bag - mum and Auntie Linda would be proud!<br />
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That aside, we then went for a late lunch down a famous Street food area, known for its Yakitori (grilled meat on sticks) however, Yakitori can actually be very expensive. So instead, we went into a very very local eatery, which had room for 8 people and was cooked in front of you by two old ladies, and had fried noodles with fried dumplings.<br />
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We also went to Akihabara, which is known for its video gaming community and shops - had a try at VR (virtual reality) gaming and then spent our evening in Odaiba, an island which overlooks the Tokyo skyline and Rainbow Bridge (it even has a mini statue of liberty) watching the city lights.<br />
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We met Taka for dinner but it was too busy to eat inside this tiny little local restaurant so we took the food home with us. It was a traditional meal from Taka's home city of Hiroshima. Okinomiyaki. Something that not many people have heard of and which you can't really find outside of Japan as it's such a speciality. It's basically a pancake, layered with cabbage and vegetables, your choice of fried or crispy noodles, topped with an omlete and your choice of meat or fish (normally pork) and then a special sweet soya sauce and mayonnaise over it all. It's definitely something different!<br />
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The next day we woke up semi-early with the intention of going to the famous Tsujiki fish market. Normally your supposed to head down for around 5am to witness the fish auction where massive tunas and salmon's are auctioned from the wholesalers to restaurants, however, there is no way we would be up for that, instead, we went for the second best thing it was famous for - the best fresh sushi/sashimi, probably in the world! We walked around the market which was 15mins away from Taka's apartment tried a few fishy/eggy breakfast specialities of Japan and then waited in line - a full hour - for the best sashimi restaurant in the world. Fish caught fresh from the sea and served on your plate. It was well worth the long wait.<br />
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For those who are unaware what sashimi is, its raw cured fish, mainly salmon and tuna, thinly sliced (plus things like salmon eggs etc,) placed on a bed of rice. And the proper way is to eat it with pickled vegetables, cockles, wasabi (super spicy green mustard), miso soup (a cloudy salty broth) and Matcha green tea. I can honestly say it was one of the best meals I have ever had, and that's saying something. It was worth the money and the wait.<br />
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We then took the train to Tokyo Station and walked around the Imperial Palace Gardens (you can only tour the actual Palace by pre-arranged tour or special permission) and headed to Ueno district for a snack down another famous street food Street (where I had a strawberry cheesecake and cream Crepe, with an actual slice of cheesecake in!) and to Ueno park for sunset views of the skyline and a very picturesque temple. That evening we met up with one of Taka's friends (Alex from Valencia) and with one of our Japanese friends Yosuke (pronounced Yos-keh), who we spent Christmas with on the Stray Bus in New Zealand.<br />
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We went to a Yakitori chain restaurant where we all chatted and got to know each other. Then as it was our 2nd last night in Tokyo, and a Saturday night. As is tradition for a night out, we, Yosuke and Taka all went to a Karaoke bar! However, in traditional Japanese style, it's not an ordinary karaoke bar like in Europe. It's a private booth, sing your heart out, table-service, cheesy music/videos, complete with maracas and tamborines fest! You can chose whatever music you want on a tablet which plays it on a big screen TV with cheesy music videos, you can turn up the microphones as loud as you want, dance, laugh, play some musical instruments (tamborines, maracas) I tell you, it's a perfect night out. Rather than go to a club, you go for your private karaoke booth, play whatever music you want (no shitty dj's unless your friends music isn't your taste) sing your lungs out, get drunk and not even have to wait at a bar (it's brought to you), dance away with your friends with no unwelcome attention from guys - it's PERFECT - girls when I get home we are going to a Japanese night out! Yosuke said that he and his friends never go to a bar, they always go to a Karaoke joint as it's more fun and I agree! I think it's even a girly family thing right girls? it was a great way to end the night even being sober!<br />
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The next day Taka went hiking and we decided to spend some more time in Tokyo on our last day. We visited Harajuki for the Meiji Jingo shrine, where we witnessed a Japanese wedding and saw many families dressed in traditional clothes. This was a shrine where the first emporer of Japan and his wife are enshrined and is a big wedding venue.<br />
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Then Asakusa for the Sensoji temple - predominately Buddhist. Asakusa is also one of the oldest districts in Tokyo.<br />
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Then we viewed sunset from the top of the Tokyo Tower - basically a bigger Eiffel Tower!<br />
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That evening we just had a meal from family mart as we had already spent a lot of money and said goodbye to Taka as we would be leaving in the morning for two days at the Mt Fuji area. Thanks for having us, it was awesome. Tokyo, we'll be seeing you again before we go but bye-bye for now!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Tokyo, Japan35.6894875 139.6917063999999321.7112815 119.03740939999993 49.6676935 160.34600339999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-86290610621962130782016-11-03T04:36:00.000-07:002016-11-09T04:53:43.907-08:00Konnichiwa Tokyo!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our journey began in Wellington where we caught an early morning flight up to Auckland. Our connection was an hour and then it was time to say bye bye New Zealand and hello Japan! After a year here it seemed like a sad farewell, but at least we had somewhere exciting to go to next.<br />
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We flew with Air New Zealand and they were awesome! Good leg room, great entertainment, awesome food and a pretty smooth flight. The flight was long though, 10hrs and we barely slept, so that by the time we arrived in Tokyo that afternoon at 5pm, we were exhausted!<br />
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We landed at Narita airport, which is a good hour and a half bus ride from central Tokyo. So our journey hadn't ended just yet! And we were about to experience our first travel hiccup. At customs they ask on your boarding card to have a place of 'residence' in Japan, so say your hotel or something. However, we were couchsurfing in Tokyo and had no idea where our hosts apartment was, other than the district, which we thought would get us by, but nope, we needed an address and telephone number. So we both got refused at customs until we had that address. I'd thought on the plane maybe we should have just written a fake one down as we had access to trip advisor on the plane but we didn't think it would be an issue; we thought wrong!<br />
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To add to the problem, the customs officers didn't speak much English, or understand, and our WiFi wasn't working so I couldn't even look up the address/message our host. Luckily one of the information clerks managed to help me connect to the WiFi, however by this point we had found our tickets to show proof of onward travel, which after much Japanese discussion between the clerk and the officials, seemed to be enough, and they let us through - phew! We were the last ones through customs and the last ones to collect our bags lol!<br />
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After that small stress it was then time to find and buy our bus tickets to Tokyo. Luckily the clerk's there knew enough English to understand and send us on our way to Tokyo Station a half hr later.<br />
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Upon arrival we were supposed to meet our couchsurfing host. For those who don't know what couchsurfing is, it's a website where local people can host you in their house/apartment, for free! It's great because not only do you save on accommodation but you meet local people and some even show you local things and places if they have time. Sometimes it's a bed in a shared room, a couch, a private room, but when it's free you don't really care what you sleep on/in, as long as the host is nice and accommodating. Usually it's a short-term stay, such as one or two nights, however we were staying with our host, Takahiro, for 5 nights, which was extremely nice of him to allow us to stay so long. It was actually our first time couchsurfing the official way and it was Taka who contacted us a month ago and offered us somewhere to stay, which was super nice of him.<br />
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So we waited about an hour for Taka to finish work and to find each other in the crowds of rush-hour Tokyo Station, which in itself is an experience, a good place to people-watch. So many business men all smart and with their brief-cases, and women all dressed up - Tokyo is a very fashionable, well respectable place already.<br />
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Taka met us after work, and we had some quick introductions, he was 24 had studied in California, was originally born in and from Hiroshima, but had moved to Tokyo for work. He worked in IT/data systems/servers for Amazon, right in Central Tokyo, in Shimbashi. Before going to his apartment we went for a meal. He took us to a Ramen restaurant in the Tokyo Station area.<br />
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Now, eating in Japan was one of the things we were anticipating the most. Everyone knows how we love to eat and my travels are mostly about the food, with a little culture lol. We both LOVE Japanese food so we couldn't wait to try as much as we possibly could while we were here. So the place Taka took us to was a big part of our first experience. Most restaurants in Japan are small, intimate affairs, think like a Sushi train restaurant, a tiny shop, with a round bar-like table, the kitchen either in the middle or to the side, with some bar stools, and you've got it. You can fit around 8-20 people max in most restaurants - the local ones. Also, because the Japanese are always on the go and work non-stop, everything is quick, efficient and easy - if you know Japanese! It was probably a very good thing Taka was with us, because for our first time, we wouldn't have had a clue! Mainly because, most of these restaurants opperate on a vending machine system. This means, outside the restaurant is a vending machine, with the limited menu on (there's no messing around with Japanese food, it's simple, yet so tasty, with just enough dishes to be a big enough menu without having to spend ages wondering what to have).<br />
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You put your money in, then you press the option you want, whether you want small or large, and it prints you out a receipt. You then take this inside, show the waiter, you choose a stool and your food is served to you a few minutes later. Simple, quick, efficient. It was delicious and an awesome first experience. Ramen is a type of noodle, and it's served in a either a clear or creamy broth, hot or cold, with meat (normally pork), a boiled egg, a boiled quails egg, and some veggies and some dried seaweed. However every soup differs but they are all delicious and have the same basic ingredients. It is however, going to be so hard getting used to HAVING to use chopsticks for everything - there's not really any knives or forks, you can find soup spoons though!<br />
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We all got to know each other over dinner and then we headed back to Taka's apartment as by this time it was nearing 10pm. Taka lives in a district called Shimbashi, two stops from Tokyo Station and basically in a very central location, both in terms of transport and sights. His apartment is 5mins from his work and from the station and it's a really nice area. His apartment was small but for the 3 of us it was fine. We would be sleeping in the main room, on traditional Japanese futons (mattress on the floor), and he would be sleeping in the kitchen/entrance way. But apparently this suited him, even though it felt strange kicking him out of his room, but he did this all the time as he basically never has a night without couchsurfers. He thoroughly enjoys hosting people and making new friends from around the world and prefers this to living on his own, so it suits us and it suits him!<br />
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Upon getting back we basically all went to bed. However Taka said that tomorrow he would show us some of Tokyo, as his job is super flexible. Hid wages are based on performance, not hours, so if he works well, and only does an hour at home, it's the same as if he has to work 12hrs. So it really was an awesome job he has! He can even earn more than his manager sometimes, if he puts the effort in.<br />
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We slept for around 11 hours, which was amazing! The next day Taka had to do an hour of work from home, so while he did that we explored the local area, just walking around, trying out the vending machines (instead of shops they have drinks, ice cream and cigarette vending machines on basically every corner, station - you name it, there will be a vending machine! Again, proof of Japanese efficiency, all you do is put money in while u wait for ur train and bam, you have what you need, or you swipe your Suica card, which is basically like an Oyster card - not only can you use it for the trains, subway and buses, but it works on vending machines and local Family Marts, 7-11's, and sometimes even restaurants, the bonus part? It's useable pretty much nation-wide! Brilliant idea! It's a bank card and a transport card! So this was the first thing we brought.<br />
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We met Taka for lunch at a very local Udon restaurant. This one you didn't require use of a vending machine, but you went in, ordered your type of soup (hot/cold, fish/meat, thick/thin broth etc), the noodles inside the soup were Udon (thick noodles), and then you select the type of Tempura you want - the choice is fresh in front of you and you just pop on your plate. Tempura is to describe anything battered, so fish, vegetables, meat, potatoes etc. I chose Prawn tempura with a hot fish Udon soup (a type of flaky dried tuna) which was delicious! Pierrick chose the large pork udon, with Tempura squid, which was also delicious, all of this was 500¥ (around $7nzd).<br />
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Japan can be cheap, if you go to the right places, or buy from the supermarket/100¥ store or family marts. But it can also be expensive for things like accommodation and travel - for example, it's around 30-40$ a night in a hostel, and one way on the bullet train - the worlds first high-speed rail - can be as costly as $300. Luckily, before we came we purchased a -14day Japan rail pass, which allows you unlimited travel on bullet trains, local trains and ferries for 14 days - from the day you decide to activate it - without a reservation (meaning you can just rock up to a station on the day and hop on a train.) This cost us $600 each in advance - so it's quite a saving really!<br />
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Yeah, back to it! So yea, we ate lunch and then did a day of sight-seeing with Taka as our guide. We went to the Rikugi-en gardens, where we were lucky enough to catch the one out of 3 days in the year, that they host a free Japanese Matcha tea-making session in the old Samuri's house. A lady kindly showed us the correct way of brewing Japanese tea, which is all dependent on the temperature of the water and the time to stew. The first cup has to be cooler, so you transfer water from the kettle into a large cuo to dispell some of the heat, and then into another cup. You then need one teaspoon of Matcha tea leaves per person, in a teapot and pour the cooler water in. You leave this for exactly 30 seconds and then you pour the water a little at a time into each cup, so a third in each cup, then you go backwards and pour another third in each cup, and so forth, until all the liquid is equally portioned out. You can use the same leaves for another two cups. However with each cup the water is allowed to be hotter, so you pour only into the one cup to cool the water down, and then into the teapot and the last cup you can pour the water from the kettle straight into the teapot. The tea also increases with taste and colour with each pot that you make. It's quite a delicate procedure - and as the woman said, tea is the 3rd language, so it must be practised and performed as well as one speaks!<br />
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After this we had a walk around the gardens and then we headed to Harajuki. Which is an area for Japanese fashion, weird and wackyness, cosplay and all manor of extreme! Harajuki is not a street though as most people believe - it's an area and in it is Takeshita Dori (street), which is where the main action happens. It's buzzing, it's loud and it's colourful. You can find all the strange, fluffy, colourful and wacky fashion madness that is known as Japanese. Plus huge rainbow candyfloss, wacky Crepes, huge cuddly toys etc. You name it, they probably have it...and more! In fact, they will probably have it, but it won't look like anything you imagine!<br />
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We then walked on through to the neighbouring district of Shibuya. Most people will know Shibuya, mainly for the Shibuya crossing, you know, that famous one where you can cross in any which imaginable way, where 5 roads all meet, and there's lights, many zebra crossings and people and madness! Yea that one, and it's just as you imagine it to be - organised chaos! It's actually something that Japan, I'm beginning to realise, is great at - organised, timely chaos - everything is on time, the crossings are so big, even though you have to wait for them to turn green, there's plenty of time and plenty of ways to make sure you can go in the right direction! And they are big enough to fit the amount of people that need to cross it - like I'm talking a trucks length is their width! I've never seen anything like it. It's totally different from New Zealand where you wait for ages for it to turn green and then you have only 2 seconds to cross before it's red again!<br />
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We viewed the crossing from the 2nd floor of Starbucks - an apparently very popular place, just not for its coffee! We walked over the crossing a few times, just to experience it and take some selfies.<br />
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We then walked through the bright lights and chaos of Shibuya shopping district, photographing the lights and the strange toys you can buy. It really was everything I'd imagined about Japan; bright, loud, busy, strange, wacky and amazing!<br />
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That night we had booked for a traditional all-you-can-eat japanese BBQ meal, and thanks to Taka's work colleague, got it for 1500¥ instead of 2500¥. It is basically a mini coal BBQ on your table and you have unlimited orders for meat, vegetables and rice and noodles for 100minutes. They bring them out fresh to your table, and you cook it yourself. We had plenty of helpings of beef, pork, chicken and even pig tongue, (a local delicacy) which was actually yummy! Our first day in Japan was complete and boy had it been good. Special thanks to Taka for being a wonderful guide and for taking time to show us around.<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Tokyo, Japan35.6894875 139.6917063999999321.7112815 119.03740939999993 49.6676935 160.34600339999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-63458227808213929482016-11-02T05:11:00.000-07:002017-03-23T01:20:01.211-07:00Dunedin - Hostel Managing, working life, Manor Crew and the best 6 months!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-NZ">As our time in Dunedin and the ‘work’ part
of our ‘Working Holiday’ experience draws to an end, I thought I’d better write
a small blog post to sum up the highlights and low-lights of our time here –
our little Edinburgh-away-from-home.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ">Travelling through Dunedin way back in
Feb/March, we always knew it would be a high contender for the live and work
part of our visa. And when we saw the opportunity of a lifetime – Night
Managers at a hostel there – we applied immediately, and pretty much was
accepted immediately. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ">This made up our mind, we would spend the
next 5 months working for accommodation, as Night Managers of Manor House
Backpackers, this in turn would leave our daytime hours free to then find work
in Dunedin city, and any money we earned would be saved, as our only out-goings
would be food. So after our short final travels through Queenstown-Mount
Cook-Christchurch-Kaikoura, we took a bus down to our final destination for our
time in New Zealand.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">And boy has it been a good one! So our time
at the backpackers has been great, it’s expanded our knowledge of a larger
working backpackers, we’ve worked paid shifts during the days too for when the
day manager or weekend manager have been off. It’s developed more skills on top
of where we worked in Surat Bay and we’ve brought skills we learnt there, to
the backpackers here. It started off a bit iffy as we wasn’t sure if we would
be staying as Mario (the previous Night Manager) had decided not to go to
Australia and stay. Which meant we would have to move to the sister hostel in
Christchurch. Once we had researched it and accepted our fate, Mario then
changed his mind and said he wanted to go to Christchurch – gah! So the first
week was a bit up and down on the stress scale, but once we knew we were
staying we could begin to settle in!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Manor House is a home-away-from-home, split
over two houses, it allows for around 75 guests when at full capacity – so it’s
a pretty big responsibility! We had our own bedroom in exchange for 4 hours
work in the evenings 5-9pm, and then we are ‘on call’ for late check-ins/emergencies,
which luckily wasn’t so bad – just the odd drunk phone call at 3am as they’ve
forgotten the code for the door, or because guests can’t sleep due to other
guests having a loud party; that kind of thing! Our key responsibilities were
to check people in, finish off laundry if it had been busy during the day, make
sure people adhered to the noise and alcohol rules after 11pm, a general clean-up
of common areas and just be around for help or information about Dunedin. So it
hasn’t been too hard, and it’s been great meeting lots of different people! We
were accepted immediately by the hostel manager Carolyn who became a friend by
the end of our stay, and by the owner Belinda (Manor House was one of 3 hostels
she owned) who was again more of a friend than a manager whenever she came to
visit.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">We’ve had some amazing people who have
become friends for life pass through and we’ve had some characters and a half,
come through and luckily leave pretty swiftly! Our main group has been the
cleaners, who also work for accommodation, and the long-termers, who live at
the backpackers while working. We’ve all had some great moments, whether it was
a rare night on the town<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5295475483137749199" name="_GoBack"></a> or baking Sundays, and towards
the end we started doing weekly ‘Around the world’ dinners, where everyone
would cook something traditional from where they come from. We had Chilean,
French, Korean, UK, German, Japanese. It’s crazy but when you live and work
with people you build such an intense friendship they kind of become your
adopted family, everyone’s personalities just fit together and we miss everyone
terribly, we had such an awesome family, and even just the people who passed
through for a few nights tended to fit into our little group. It was the kind
of hostel you came to for just a night and never wanted to leave, so you end up
extending and then just staying! Sophie my little Frenchie bestie, even moved
out into student accommodation and missed it so much she paid a large fee to
get out of her bond after a week and come back to Manor House to live in a dorm
for the duration of her internship.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">While we were in Dunedin we had various day
jobs. We signed up to job agencies and at first just took what we could. Our
first job was taking email addresses at Race day. Then pretty much a week after
we arrived I was offered one of my best jobs as a receptionist for the biggest
Law Firm in New Zealand, Galloway Cook Allan, which was only a 5min walk from
the hostel. They were known for taking on high profile and big money cases and
also lawyers for famous people. In fact even two of the lawyers who worked
there were high profile people themselves. One was a former Wales and All
Blacks Rugby player, the other was a famous Cricket player who worked at the firm
during the off-season months. I worked alongside Heather, who became a very
good friend during my time in Dunedin, and the position paid pretty damn well
for a temp position. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-NZ">Unfortunately it was only for a month while they waited
for a new starter, but it was a fantastic month and one that proved how
welcoming, interested and friendly the Kiwi’s were. They were such lovely
people and the whole company made an effort to really get to know you, on my
last day during post rounds it actually took me an hour to get back to the desk
because everyone wanted to just stop working and talk to me about my next
ventures and my previous travel etc. Even the top lawyers and CEO of the
company. They gave me a lovely gift at the end to say thank you and it really
was a pleasurable job, I actually didn’t mind getting up for work everyday; the
highlight?! I got to meet pretty much every high profile All Blacks Rugby
player! Their lawyer worked at the firm and they were playing against Wales in
Dunedin (which we managed to get tickets for!). So of course while here, they
visited their Lawyer, and I was even making chit chat with one in the lift! My
god they were handsome, however I wasn’t really sure who any of them were, so
when each one came in me and Heather would take their name, perve, and once
they were in with their lawyer, frantically research them online. Unfortunately
as we had to be professional, I couldn’t take pictures, but I got to see them
daily load their tour bus as the hotel was also opposite the office. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Then I was unemployed for around 3 days,
and on my birthday of all days, was called in for a 3 week stint at an
Apple-Packing factory. It was possibly the worst 3 weeks of my life, mainly
because due to the working conditions (working in 1-2 degrees, standing all-day
and repetitive motions) my back completely gave in and i was in agony,
subsequently having to seek a chiropractor for the rest of my time in Dunedin.
However, it allowed us to continue saving and was a job after all. My job was
to basically check apples that had been packed at an apple orchard, to check
for deformities before we re-packaged the good ones to send off for shipping to
places like Asia, the US and the UK – in fact we packaged apples that were to
be sold in M&S! I also had to wear about 5 layers of clothing, hat, scarf
and two pairs of gloves because it was so god-damn cold in the warehouse!!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Then I was called in by another agency after
about a week of being unemployed, to be an administrator for WellSouth – a mental
health practise. Again the wages were super high, but the work to begin with
was pretty dull – basically data entry of patients from a surgery that had been
closed. It was originally for only around 1 week, but they ended up extending
me for a further month and a half, and then they were like, sod it, you may as
well stay til you leave! So they just found me any kind of jobs they needed
doing, like reception cover, clearing out and sorting a cupboard that had
become a dumping ground and odd admin and HR roles. They were also just as good
to me, I got two sets of gifts as they never knew when my last day would
actually be. My manager, Kim, was awesome, again became a friend more than a
manager, and the staff were all super friendly. Again it was just opposite my
favourite coffee place down from the hostel and round the corner from Galloway
Cook Allan, so all my roles really had been perfect! During this time I also
worked some 7-day weeks (plus coming home to then also work in the backpackers in the evening as Pierrick often had evening work!!) as the other agency found me some weekend cleaning at
the student accommodation up at Dunedin University, and I was a traffic
controller at the Cadbury Chocolate Festival (they have a Cadbury factory in
Dunedin). We also between us worked weekend shifts at the Hostel if the weekend
manager was off. So for a period it was pretty intense work-wise but we were
racking the money in so it was all worth it – we still have half of that money
in the bank, even after all the travel since! In total, due to saving on accommodation, we
left Dunedin with around $18,000 NZD. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Pierrick managed to find odd temp roles,
such as in a coffee factory, removals, and at a chicken farm – which was his
worst job ever! Basically all day shoving chickens into cages to produce eggs.
He then found a more permanent role at two cleaning firms around the town, one
specialised in public areas and private office spaces, the other was based at
the university buildings. He also was the main one to work the day shifts at
the hostel, if ever Carolyn needed us, so he got a lot of experience there. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Part of the fun of the hostel as well, was
that we got to go on all the tours we sold at the hostel – for free! Obviously,
in the hopes we would sell some. So we got a Cadbury Chocolate tour, a Speight’s
Brewery tour with a tasting (basically all you could drink beer and cider in
half an hour!), and a Dunedin City Sights, Otago Peninsula and Larnach Castle
day-tour. They were amazing and it was such a cool thing to have as perks of
the job! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ">Dunedin itself was such a wonderful city to
live and work in. It’s classed as the 2<sup>nd</sup> largest city on the south
island after Christchurch, however it feels more like a town! It was settled by
the Scottish, hence it’s name (means Edin on the hill – the other name for
Edinburgh) and has the oldest church and oldest university in New Zealand and the steepest street in the world. It’s
got two beaches, plenty of hills and local hikes, plus it’s close to Tunnel
Beach (some stunning coastline), the Catlins where we had just come from, and
it has the Otago Peninsula – which is home to some of New Zealand’s best
wildlife! Albatross, Seals, Sea Lions, Blue and Yellow Penguins, and in the
right seasons, Whales and Dolphins! Even the people speak with a Scottish twang
– they roll their ‘r’s’ more than others in New Zealand. Its true they have a
very distinct accent. In fact, I think it was living there that has given me
the ‘twang’ everyone keeps saying I have! In fact, if I could choose anywhere
to settle in New Zealand, it would be Dunedin. It’s beautiful, it’s small, the
house pricing is low, it’s off the major earthquake fault-lines, it’s got great
beaches, an airport and it’s close to most places on the South Island –
especially Central Otago and the Mount Cook area. It also has some pretty epic
street art, coffee houses, a great Farmers market and some cool events each
year. Am I selling it yet?!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ">I have to say the 5-6 months we spent in Dunedin
were just as epic as the months we spent travelling, and we gained a family, a
home, jobs and memories for a lifetime. When we left, our family gave us a
great art piece full of some of the best memories at the hostel, I couldn’t
list them all but here’s some of my favourites; the gallons of Mojito and
Sangria we used to make on our rare one night off a month to have a hostel
party, seriously, we had about 14 litres plus beer one night (Sophie’s leaving
party) and making Pavlovas, our baking days too. Nights down at the Pool House. Per the crazy German in his tent (he camped outside in his tent instead
of staying in the hostel as he preferred it), he was working too – madman! Nik
falling asleep on the toilet one night as he had so much to drink. The Irish
gang who came over the Rugby period and destroyed the place/were loud/sick
everywhere. Trying to go up to Mount Cargill but ending up getting lost and
going the other side of it, with two car loads of us! Jamie the OCD cleaner who
we often clashed with, who was also super camp and used to annoy the hell out
of everyone with his hyperactiveness; one of his finer moments, getting in bed
with a poor guy and shouting ‘the door is open!’ Mario the old manager’s bad
choice of music in the kitchen every night. The characters who stayed at the
hostel; Rainbow man – a hippie who was doing the marathon and who dressed in
colourful clothes and was like a wizard, Teacher woman who was from England and
kept saying how the UK was better than New Zealand (even though she hadn’t been
home for 10yrs and she knew best and also decided to sleep in the corridor as
people outside her room were ‘too loud’, Porno Man, who was in his 50’s and
used to watch escort sites outside the female only dorm room. And just so many
more!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-NZ">Dunedin will always hold a special place in
my heart and I miss it so much, however I don’t think it would be the same
without the people we met, our Manor House crew; Sophie, Consuelo, Nik, Eri,
Clare, Rob, Lee, Luisa, Laura, Ana, Luke, Per, Harry, Marine, Carolyn, YeonJi, Camille and
everyone in between no matter how small a time you were with us – You guys made
our year!</span></div>
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Dunedin, New Zealand-45.8787605 170.5027976-46.05565 170.1800741 -45.701871 170.8255211tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-18147818448882103922016-05-09T15:00:00.000-07:002016-05-14T22:42:23.849-07:00Managing a Backpackers in the Catlins...simply by chance!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So we wee WWOOFing in the Catlin's for 2 months, which is a long time to sum up in one blogpost, but I'm going to try. It will basically just contain the important parts of our experiences there.<br />
<br />
So we left Dunedin and arrived at our new hosts house, in Surat Bay, North Catlins, around the 6th March. They were Ester (from the Philippines, 55) and Jack an 80 yr old Kiwi, who were looking for people to help out with a lodge they had just purchased. They also owned two self-contained units as a Bed and Breakfast, so we also helped out with cleaning or checking in guests for those occasionally. Little did we know that this lodge would be a busy backpackers right beside the sea, which they wanted us to manage full-time. We only learnt this upon arrival! We were rather excited but also a little nervous as we didn't really know much about how a Backpackers is run.<br />
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Our first few days were just settling in and working with the other French WWOOFer Laurent, we also went down to Hina Hina (a bay across from Surat Bay), where we went Cockling (in our area you could fish for Cockles, Mussels and Paua - a NZ only Shellfish, kind of an Abalone). We also saw plenty of Sea-Lions on our walks along the bay - Surat Bay is a Sea-Lion haul-up beach, along with Cannibal Bay, the next beach down. You can see Sea-Lions everywhere, there is a colony of around 20 of them. They will just be lying on the beach covered in sand and you'd almost trip over them! But they are super easy-going, they just look at you; 'oh there goes another human', and plop back down to sleep and cover themselves in more sand. The only time they would get territorial is if they have a pup with them or you block their path to the sea, then, they can run at you at terrifying speeds!<br />
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On the 10th March was the handover with the old owners, to Jack and Ester. The old owners we basically eventually found out, were assholes. A French couple who had come from New Caledonia and we eventually found out, after all the local community did for them to try and help them to stay, had basically been kicked out of the country (unable to get permanent visas) and we realised after taking over the lodge from all the letters, that they owed thousands of dollars in debt and hadn't paid their taxes properly!!<br />
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The day Ester and Jack were taking over, was also they day they were going on a 4-day holiday!! So not only did we have to take over a new business which we didn't know much about, we had to do it without the owners and on the worst day weather-wise! We were supposed to go and view and learn about the Lodge a few days before the takeover but the old owners Sylvianne and Christian wouldn't let any of us enter until 'they said' (Jack and Ester had to get a lawyer to negotiate things because they were being that difficult). So we ended up doing a quick and very brief session the day before, where Christian (who didn't speak much english after 7 years being in the country), basically insulted Jack, wouldn't let him see where the important things like the electrics board, gas, and water tanks were etc, and then came in and almost had a fight with Pierrick while his wife was teaching us the computer system (Pierrick held himself back and just ignored him but Christian put his wife in tears over it).<br />
<br />
So the day we took over we had severe gale-force winds, rain and the electricity went down for about 4 hours! So we had to take over, just as check-in started, without really knowing what was going on, while Jack and Ester had to rush around before their flight left to Auckland in 4 hours. Then just before they left, the electricity went down, so we had customers which weren't happy, couldn't cook, there was no wifi and no lights....ahhhhh! Apparently the power went down across half of the south island but it was back up and running before night hit thank god!<br />
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That weekend was a busy weekend and we managed to deal with it ok, we basically taught ourselves everything and managed to keep the place in one piece until Ester and Jack arrived back. We moved into the lodge, so we had our own double room there with sea-views - lush, and then we would just go to the house every evening for dinner. Laurent was around to help us with the cleaning in the morning and then we got to work on things around the place like cleaning, making sure the kitchens were equipped, putting up signs, labelling cupboards, moving furniture, adding furniture, gardening (the garden was a mess!), basically making the place ten times better than it had been left!<br />
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Once Jack and Ester came back we got to work on the projects they had in mind, like moving reception from the tiny cupboard, and putting it back into the old reception area which they had used as an illegal living space (it had never been cleared by the council). Moving the linen into the actual linen cupboard rather than the laundry room, we got the electrician and plumbers out to take a look at things - everything was illegal and dangerous basically! We got new appliances, new matresses, new beds; changed the 7 bed dorm into an 8 bed dorm and eventually the 3-bed dorm into a family room for 5 people. There was so much to do it kept us all very busy!<br />
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And there will still be lots to do over the coming months. Jack wants to get planning permission to convert the old illegal living space next door to reception into a self contained unit for future wwoofers/managers. Make the outside sheds more stable so he can move all his tools into it. They want to eventually convert our double room into a 6-bed dorm and with our input, we suggested they will need to do some renovating - such as more bathrooms (as currently there is definitely not enough for the amount of people in high season), they needed to replace the slated windows with plane glass to stop the drafts, they also need to get more heaters, insulate the place and eventually double-glaze all the windows of the lodge. There is alot to do but they just don't have the money to do it all this winter so it may take a couple of years, but they trusted us to take our knowledge of other backpackers on board to help renovate and update it. It was almost as they they had started this hostel from scratch, we helped them build everything - the foundations of the business! All the admin side, all the advertising, helping to get reviews up, creating social media pages, investing in customer needs, adding services (like in summer, having a little shop with basic food and toiletry items as the nearest shop is a 5min drive away in Owaka), setting up the booking system, installing a hotel management system and channel manager, adding us to Booking.com, all things we had never done before but we took the initiative and just got on with it and trained ourselves up and learnt as we went!<br />
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In the end, we knew more about the business than Ester and Jack, and so we suggested they should live in it over winter while its quieter, so they would know the priorities and understand the daily running of it. As, they were quite stubborn people and insisted what they thought were priorities (like getting rid of a perfectly good couch because it looked 'ugly' to them, or getting rid of the perfectly good linen for all new things - which would be money wasted) were what needed to be done, and we knew they weren't priorities yet, that there were much bigger things to think about than wasting money when they needed to save money for the bigger projects. So we clashed (not argumentatively) but we had to try and try and try to drum into them what they should be doing, and luckily, when Jack's son and daughter came to visit, they also sat them down as they were concerned like we were, and drummed into them that we were right in everything we were saying. So they eventually began to realise.<br />
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It was just hard as Ester was a full-time nurse who worked only night shifts, they had their own B&B to run, plus the lodge to think about so they didn't really have their heads in the right place, plus they were taking over a very risky and very different business to their current one - 23-32 beds in a lodge is very different to two units! Plus, they didn't realise (and im not sure they still do yet to be honest), that their main customers were backpackers, not older richer people. They need to really understand the business better, so I really hope they do this winter before summer hits. Also, towards the end Ester was adament she was going to control reception herself...but we were trying to tell her you just can't, especially when your working nights and needing to sleep in the day, you need people there permanently for the emails, cleaning, checking in, phone calls etc...so I really hope this winter teaches them that its not the same as owning two self-contained units! Bless them, they were so lovely but just a little naive about what they had bought.<br />
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When we had a frank discussion with them, we got the feeling they had gone into it as though they were buying their dream home...not a business and they hadn't budgeted for what it would need done to it and that one day, especially in the summer, they would need to employ someone permanently as you can't have wwoofers running it every 1-2 months, it needed stability. Plus, unfortunately, even though we are very trusting, some other people wouldn't be. It was a business that was mainly taking cash, and in the first week alone when they were on holiday we had almost $2000 in cash in our keeping - if we hadn't have been trust-worthy people, we could have taken it and run! And thats also what Jack's family are worried about with having WWOOFers come and go, they are very trusting people but they just need that one person who's not and their business will fall because of it. They need to employ someone full-time even if just for the 6 months of summer, and then run the business themselves in winter.<br />
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But enough about all that! So, Laurent left just before Easter and then we had a week before the next WWOOFers, Camille and William (also french) came. In that time we had a full lodge hire over Easter - a group of friends and their families came to stay, it was an annual tradition to go on holiday in around NZ - they came with boats, instruments (most of them were Irish married to Kiwi's) loved a good sing-song and a drink! It was nice to see the place so lively! During those 5 days we only really had to clean the bathrooms and kitchens. So the rest of the day we had off and so we went sight-seeing a few times. Jack and Ester lent us one of their cars so we went out with that sometimes, but that weekend we planned on going down to the south Catlins, and only managed to get to Curio Bay (where we by chance happened to see our mate Becci from Dunedin again on a day out with her family!)<br />
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As, on our way to Slope Point, we had a wee little car accident. When I say wee, I mean, we were fine, but the car wasn't! It was on a gravel road, and basically we lost control of the car, it swerved towards a concrete pole, but Pierrick managed to steer it away, but consequently into a ditch...full of muddy water, on an area where the tide came in pretty high sometimes, in the middle of nowhere! The car landed, on it's side, so we were pretty panicked as at first we were stuck and couldn't get out. Luckily there were people behind us when it happened and they had all stopped and called the emergency services and eventually got us out. We had to wait for the fire engine and police to come out. Luckily they managed to tow the car out of the ditch and get it working again, but unfortunately when Ester went to get it road worthy again a few days later, she got told it would have to be written off as the suspension was too badly damaged! Grrr. So $300 excess later, plus a police fine of $150 (they have to fine you out here for an accident to make it worth their while being called out) it was a pretty costly crash! After the crash the volunteer firemen gave us a lift back to their house where we waited for Ester and Jack to come to take the car back. They were lovely and gave us coffee and chocolate as it was Easter Sunday. The next day we spent the whole day helping to clean the mud out of the car - it stank! It was a nasty job but it was the least we could do to say sorry. They were both so nice about it though and were more concerned about us!<br />
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The next month was spent with the new WWOOFers Camille and William, where they helped with various projects while we continued to run the backpackers. We did some good dinners like crepes and other french dishes. I started putting the great kitchen in the backpackers to use by doing alot of baking french baguettes, pizza's cookies etc - I forgot how much I missed baking! We did a bit more local sight-seeing, going for walks and hikes. We had Ivanna and Adrian come to stay with us for a night so we did some sight-seeing with them and had a great catchup and movie night. And we continued to better the backpackers, making slow but steady progress and enjoyed meeting the people who came through and getting some good reviews on TripAdvisor. One couple loved the place so much they stayed for 8 days!! I really would love to see it when it's all finished and looking it's best.<br />
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Camille and William left after a month - they stayed longer than intended as they had to spend $2000 getting their car fixed. And we spent the next week on our own, finishing up our stay with them. 3 weeks had turned into 2 months and we really had to leave to find paid work - we would have loved to have stayed but they couldn't afford to pay us. So we decided to continue and finish the rest of our Stray Pass as we had enough money to, then we would need to settle somewhere and find work until our visa ended. Ester and Jack had invited us back in the summer to pay us, which we may well come back and do but it would mean extending our visas, so until they are 100% sure they need us we won't plan anything just yet as for me its a good $500 for an extra year as I have to get a medical etc.<br />
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We managed to find Jack and Ester an experienced couple to come help them for another month and so we stayed until they arrived so we could give them some quick training. We also managed to secure (hopefully it stays that way), some work for accommodation in Dunedin, where we will be night managers in a hostel (2 hours a day in the evening each), to cover our accommodation, internet and laundry while we work, so that when we do find work, we don't have those expense to pay out for - we can save more! It also entitles us to work during the day - so hopefully no restaurant or bar work - yay! I don't mind a cafe but I really didn't want to go into hospo again. So although it means working and then working in our evenings, it's only light reception work and it means we can save more, so it will benefit us in the long run. So I guess after our two weeks of travel, Dunedin is our city of choice for work - wooo! Awesome city! I'm actually looking forward to living and working in a city for once, (as my jobs in Australia were in the middle of nowhere) plus it means me and Pierrick may actually have a normal relationship for the first time in our relationship as we will be working separate jobs.<br />
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So, I will update you on our travels soon, in the meantime, enjoy the pictures on Facebook (and instagram). Our first destination was Invercargill, then Queenstown and Mount Cook. We are now in Lake Tekapo, then on to Rangitata, Christchurch and ending in Kaikoura. Then we will slowly make our way down to Dunedin where we will start the next chapter of the NZ Working Holiday...the work part... :-(</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Lake Tekapo 7999, New Zealand-44.0046736 170.47712120000006-44.050355599999996 170.39644020000006 -43.9589916 170.55780220000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-47597636176152310442016-03-06T20:29:00.000-08:002016-04-16T21:10:52.847-07:00Dunedin (Dunnerz) - student city and catching up with Becci!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So onwards to Dunedin. Dunedin would you know, is actually one of the first places settled in the South Island. It was also where the Scots landed, hence it's name Dunedin (the old name for Edinburgh). Dun = hill, so Edin-on-the-hill. Pretty good eh? It's still got alot of Scottish heritage, seen in the buildings and even the people and their accents. Everyone refers to people in Dunedin as crazy, with very rough accents (they roll their r's apparently), obviously descending from the Scottish accent. You can even see the Scottish genes in the locals (lots of ginger freckly people, and dark curly hair with freckles and pale skin colour).<br />
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Dunedin is a unique city and I would actually say it's my favourite 'city' in New Zealand so far. At only roughly 120,000 people, it's a small city on European terms but big for New Zealand, however it still had that 'South Island small-town-city' feel, nice and quiet! It felt like Bangor with it's hilly roads, old buildings and university lifestyle and it really took me back to the good old student days! There's even two beaches, St Kilda and Brighton beach and it has a really cool arty-scene, lots of street art - a bit like Melbourne in Australia. It's also home to New Zealands first and biggest University, The University of Otago, and the first and oldest Church, plus a super cute Train station!<br />
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We were staying at a super nice hostel, Geeky Gecko, which became our home for the 5 days we were there. The first thing we did when we arrived, went shopping as A. there was the 1st PAK'N'SAVE supermarket we'd seen on the South Island, and B. with the start of Autumn hitting pretty suddenly in temperature, we needed to buy some actual winter clothes and a coat! So I went long-sleeve top, leggings, gloves, coat and boots mad at Warehouse (I bought a bargain winter coat for only $12 at a 2nd hand clothing store - yay for being a student town!). We also decided to treat ourselves to Moules Frites Thai Curry as we had found a pak'n'save which is the cheapest place for Mussels.<br />
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Over our time there we decided to do some sight-seeing. We went and checked-out and walked up the Worlds Steepest Street, Baldwin Street, we walked through the beautiful Botanical Gardens and then walked back to town via the University. Which is very much like Bangor/Cambridge in it's architecture. We also walked via the student area which brought back so many memories seeing all the trashy houses with sofas outside and music blaring from inside, rubbish strewn around and alcohol bottles overflowing the bins. It was freshers week here that week so it was pumping with students!<br />
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We also checked out the Octagon; the centre of town, went on our own street art tour, checked out the oldest church, and just enjoyed spending our time chilling around town in parks. We also checked out the free museum there which was actually very interesting. They also have a Cadbury's factory but we decided not to pay $25 each for a tour. Our last day we met with Becci, our friend from Oz, and had a wonderful few hours catching up, especially as she had recently married her Nepalese fiance, and enjoyed hearing about her life living in Nepal. She was back for a while to escape life over there for a bit as it had become intense having to live with his parents with the culture and caste difference, and plus her sister was due to make her an auntie again so a good excuse for family time. We actually also met her again while we were touring the Catlins during our current WWOOFing placement, just randomly at Curio Bay...hang-on I know that girl, ah it's Becci! So weird but so cool!<br />
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Then it was time to venture off to another great HelpX/WWOOFing experience in Surat Bay, the Catlins, with Jack and Ester, where we are currently managing a Hostel...pretty cool experience and great for future job prospects! More about that soon in my next blog!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com1Dunedin, New Zealand-45.8787605 170.5027976-46.05565 170.1800741 -45.701871 170.8255211tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-48207536759567312732016-03-01T20:05:00.000-08:002016-04-16T20:21:07.201-07:00Majestic Milford Sound and catching up with friends in Te Anau!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So we left Queenstown on the Stray Bus at the crack of dawn...it was still dark at 7am! The good thing was that as we were leaving Queenstown we got to see a magnificent sunrise over The Remarkables (a quite remarkable mountain range surrounding Queenstown).<br />
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It took us roughly 3 hours to reach Milford sound. We stopped on the way in Te Anau, (pronounced Tay-Arnew) where we tried to figure out how we were going to get to our boat cruise the next day. Basically, Stray only spend one night in Milford Sound at the off-the-beaten track location of Gunn's Camp. Today's weather forecast was rain, and so we decided to extend our stay to two nights, so that we could do our boat cruise the next day in the sunshine. However, we didn't realise Gunn's Camp is actually a good half hours drive from Milford sound, with no public buses on route, and only hitchhiking available to use (with a good hours walk to the main road) we realised we'd screwed up!<br />
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So. What we had decided after being told all this by the company of the boat cruise, was that maybe we could see when we get there, if there was availability to change to today with our Stray bus group at 3pm. The weather wasn't looking great but it was basically almost our only option, other than paying $120 for a round trip with a local pickup service. So we hoped and prayed on the hours journey from Te Anau to Milford sound that A. there would be space and B. the weather would clear up a little!<br />
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We stopped on the way once we got to Fiordland National Park for picture spots. Such as the mirror lake, and just before the tunnel heading through the mountain. Fiordland National Park is amazing, just huge towering peaks, some snow-capped, and loads of waterfalls (at least the rain was good for something). The thing is is that the west coast of New Zealand on the South Island and Fiordland National Park, is the wettest area ever, it's actually been dubbed the wettest place on earth (move over UK). Rainfall can reach 250 mm (10 in) during a span of 24 hours. On the forecasts all you ever see is maybe one or two days of sunshine, the rest is rain, so you have to be very lucky to see the sun! However, everyone we'd heard who'd done it in the rain, said that it was even more beautiful, because of the HUGE waterfalls it created through the sound.<br />
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Well, we definitely saw those, both driving through the National park and in Milford Sound itself. There were waterfalls everywhere! However, we were suuuuuuuper lucky...as when we arrived at the boat check-in, A. there was space and we only had to pay $10 for the price difference and B. the sun decided to burn through some of that cloud, and the rain had stopped - so we ended up having the best of both worlds; the joys of the waterfalls and a little blue sky! Woop! We unfortunately weren't able to see the top of Mitre Peak (the tall famous mountain at the entrance to Milford Sound), but I guess you can't be greedy when luck strikes. So we boarded our boat and went on our hour and a half cruise around the huuuuuge Milford Sound.<br />
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Milford Sound (also called Piopiotahi) is a Fiord (wrongly labelled a Sound), within Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. Carved by glaciers during the ice age, it has been judged the world's top travel destination and labelled the '8th wonder of the world'. There are peaks up to 1200metres, some snowcapped, and there are many waterfalls. Seals and Dolphins (even Whales) can often be spotted - and we were lucky enough to spot a pod of Dolphins and some Seals lounging on the rocks in the sun. There is one waterfall, Lady Bowen Falls, which is actually 3 times higher than Niagara Falls, but due to the optical illusion presented by the huge peaks surrounding it, actually looks way smaller than it is. But boy is it powerful - we got very wet underneath it on our boat deck! The tour took us all around the Fiord on both sides and also out to the opening of the ocean where we saw the Dolphins. And thankfully the sun stayed out for the full hour and a half. We got some stunning pictures and even a little burnt.<br />
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Then we headed back on the Stray bus and towards Gunn's Camp, where we would stay for two nights, but there was no phone signal and no wifi, and limited electricity (from 6pm-10pm). So it was going to be a secluded couple of nights. But I was looking forward to it, time to catch up on some reading. We did a river walk the next day, had good Pasta, tried a bush walk but it got too slippery so we turned back, and then played some games, like battleship, trivial persuit etc, talked to people (yes we actually talked rather than everyone sitting on their phones) to bide away our day of rest. It was like going back to the old days when internet and phones didn't rule your life and it was great, so refreshing. The couple who owned the camp were also very lovely and had made the place very unique.<br />
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On the Monday we hopped off the Stray Bus in Te Anau for two nights where we did a few walks around the lake and ate amazing Pies at Miles Better Pies (the best pie I have ever tasted!) we had one a day while we were there. They had Thai curry, Satay Chicken, Venison, steak and bacon, steak and cheese, lamb and mint, you name it they had it; all freshly baked! We also met our friend from Sweden, Ivana, and her boyfriend Adrian while we were there, as they were working in a hotel there for the next couple of months. So we had a great catch up which was lovely and vowed we'd see each other again when they finished work. And in fact they are coming to stay with us at our hostel in the Catlin's next week!<br />
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Our next stop was Dunedin which we couldn't wait for! It was a whim decision as we'd been contacted on HelpX for a WWOOFing spot in the Catlins and had wanted to go to Steward Island before but the ferry was too expensive. So instead we decided to head to Dunedin as it was only an hour from the Catlins. So we booked our 4 nights there, and took the Intercity from Te Anau (we were going to use Stray but it meant spending a night in Invercargill and there was nothing to do there so we thought we'd save money). We'd heard lots about Dunedin and couldn't wait to go there...plus we'd contacted an old Kiwi friend from Australia (currently living in Nepal, but was from Dunedin) and found out she was actually HOME, so we were going to get to see her while we were there - amazing! Dunedin was awesome...more about that in the next blog.<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Milford Sound 9679, New Zealand-44.671625 167.9256213-45.033502999999996 167.2801743 -44.309747 168.57106829999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-16967580175066936182016-02-27T21:30:00.000-08:002016-04-10T21:58:31.944-07:00Queenstown; we came, we conquered - it destroyed!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
So I’ve not blogged in a while which is bad I know, but
we’ve been super busy managing a hostel! So I’ll allow myself this one glitch!</div>
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So since I last blogged we visited Queenstown, adventure
capital of New Zealand, also home to New Zealand’s best burger joint –
FergBerger! We were pretty excited as we had our Canyon Swing booked for the 25<sup>th</sup>
February. We hopped on the Stray bus from Cromwell, stopping off at the AJ
Hackett Bungy, Karawau Bridge jump – which is where the Bungy Jump was first
invented by a Kiwi, AJ Hackett, and we watched some people jump. I tell you
though, watching people do it was the first time in my life I’ve ever wanted to
do a jump. It looked so cool, but I’m still not sure I could do one, unless I
did a tandem one and someone forced me to go with them, or perhaps the
Queenstown ledge bungy where you can get thrown off so you don’t have to jump
yourself!</div>
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The night we arrived in Queenstown we met up with Guillaume
again, it’s becoming a regular occurrence now! And we had a few drinks, we also
got our $25 worth of drinks vouchers from Peter Pans, but we were a bit
disappointed as it was promoted as ‘free drinks’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but actually it was just $25 worth of
discounts, so like 25% off or half price drinks etc. We went into one bar where
the voucher looked like it offered a free meal, idiot backpackers we are,
didn’t realise it was actually a burger and drink for $25 rather than a voucher
worth $25! It was a bloody good burger though, and huge so it was worth
spending £50 for a meal! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBULYaZ0bGbaKqCNXxL8Iy9FuC0hLr_A_w0u9blbYnODbQRXSUJ8ersZgYrQSRWmzdjUGfojvuZHVpnjhubZJQaVKGfTdSkPn54nXlcussS-OEgSE87IuhNCHGMxO7s6p7HOhHkauS7d_y/s1600/12742468_729168740733_5731957728152258295_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBULYaZ0bGbaKqCNXxL8Iy9FuC0hLr_A_w0u9blbYnODbQRXSUJ8ersZgYrQSRWmzdjUGfojvuZHVpnjhubZJQaVKGfTdSkPn54nXlcussS-OEgSE87IuhNCHGMxO7s6p7HOhHkauS7d_y/s320/12742468_729168740733_5731957728152258295_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The next day was our Canyon Swing, it was a pretty wet and
windy day so we didn’t have high hopes for it going ahead but when we got to
the check-in they told us it looked ok. It was scheduled for 1pm. Before, we
went for a short walk around Queenstown city centre and went for a $10 curry
and rice! On the bus on the way there, we were getting pretty nervous, but we
hid it by getting to know a few people going – one girl had won a ticket to do
every bungy and every swing in New Zealand – however she did chicken out of the
highest one The Nevis Bungy at 134m (I think I would too!).</div>
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When we got there we were told to check-in but it was on
wind-hold (as its so high, its dangerous to operate in high winds), but we only
had to wait half an hour before we got to walk along the wobbly bridge of no
return! Once we got to the jump platform this is when we really were bricking
it! Watching other people swing was probably one of the scariest things about
it, as you see them suspended over the ground at 160m, and then they just drop,
full force, free-fall, in all their screaming glory towards the ground! It’s a
70m free-fall, 300m arc swing at speeds of 150kmh! We saw around 7 people swing
before us – tandem definitely dropped faster than the singles as you have more
weight behind you. We were doing it tandem! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRqjF_yrXINmcSaGVN1fbx8BVbGm8pHCBwk_cJmyM4FiVSsCpl5UQDMmQpIWQLWpanEBeZb3ZeFe0swFq_HrnZLOhiMiW4nwEVNHHk9BzIScPK_10p2ARCvHRU0tplza4ZM-DUUwbnDmK/s1600/Untitled1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRqjF_yrXINmcSaGVN1fbx8BVbGm8pHCBwk_cJmyM4FiVSsCpl5UQDMmQpIWQLWpanEBeZb3ZeFe0swFq_HrnZLOhiMiW4nwEVNHHk9BzIScPK_10p2ARCvHRU0tplza4ZM-DUUwbnDmK/s320/Untitled1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So it came to our turn and we started freaking out, we told
the guy we wanted no surprises, we wanted a countdown lol. Two couples had been
surprised before – one had been made to put their arms around each other and as
they were moving into position he dropped them, another had been made to smile
at their friends camera and then dropped – it looked terrifying! They strapped
us in, and then the terrifying part came – taking our feet off the platform and
being suspended above the ground, waiting to drop! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7zucShvmaQ7JOOkN-23stWGuDk9nHZsMbcKj7F7odVV5w11avLCcHYEIlCdm1YwZEi7Zfg7LBFDin7G8gerCTatB_xzWlrFMMYopPluQkwQp9d4HIibmdz0g79aSVUkjfz5Up-D2uJUg/s1600/Untitled3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7zucShvmaQ7JOOkN-23stWGuDk9nHZsMbcKj7F7odVV5w11avLCcHYEIlCdm1YwZEi7Zfg7LBFDin7G8gerCTatB_xzWlrFMMYopPluQkwQp9d4HIibmdz0g79aSVUkjfz5Up-D2uJUg/s320/Untitled3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On a count of three, after smiling at the cameras, we
dropped, it was awesome but breathtaking – I’m not even sure how I even managed
to find the air to scream! Pierrick screamed like a girl too (haha), but only
on the swing as he was too breathless on the drop. That feeling where your
stomach feels like its in your lungs? Well multiply that by 2 (it’s stomach in
the head feeling), for at least 3-4 seconds, and that’s how it felt to drop, it
was worse than freefalling in a skydive!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1UNvdGq5hHBLDzXNy3vyTTcA6QXrRL5F4xKuS8vlviBmdzvxzkHiDSxEzdbgW6Nd9yYIQyWpu-L5XKBzmXU73jIZk7vw2zW7ukPsqY4BvZ1_oObDmnPqTcEaSlAWsba49K_gFkLWSVNnU/s1600/Untitled2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1UNvdGq5hHBLDzXNy3vyTTcA6QXrRL5F4xKuS8vlviBmdzvxzkHiDSxEzdbgW6Nd9yYIQyWpu-L5XKBzmXU73jIZk7vw2zW7ukPsqY4BvZ1_oObDmnPqTcEaSlAWsba49K_gFkLWSVNnU/s320/Untitled2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After, we had a huge rush of adrenaline and I honestly could
have done it again and again! I think next time we are in Queenstown I will do
the other Canyon swing where you can chose how you fall (I really want to go
down a slide and fall!) That night we got a FergBurger to celebrate – amazing!
They are huge and delicious. Pierrick had the Big Al – basically the biggest you
can get, and I had the Steak burger – full of juicy tender sirloin steak and
onions! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGPrPLUwd8pSsj2dEmta6A6ld7ohMreLc5kHLaJNpocwaUgKNzLU9VJyYZA_zgF68Q4zL0FegTEIpIovaNFpJf05Bo1FIdihw5hpi8A542lC0MzOQb5k1wWdSCVZUB_9vfLApsMWcLf87/s1600/12742240_729169184843_9016530245462676483_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGPrPLUwd8pSsj2dEmta6A6ld7ohMreLc5kHLaJNpocwaUgKNzLU9VJyYZA_zgF68Q4zL0FegTEIpIovaNFpJf05Bo1FIdihw5hpi8A542lC0MzOQb5k1wWdSCVZUB_9vfLApsMWcLf87/s320/12742240_729169184843_9016530245462676483_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPAmqkMyiX8htnRDzoyWCICWNC5OS_1LfkwdoXciiL3ensLv1x3_Z_ZlViGcj5wnVlB7pxbBE_2j9aj6s4aqHvQUUpkLXkpRhFH30J5zIR_au_3-Ul5E7WMd3eHjvr4Y7zcvJd402qasf/s1600/993548_729661583073_1213735220106902541_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPAmqkMyiX8htnRDzoyWCICWNC5OS_1LfkwdoXciiL3ensLv1x3_Z_ZlViGcj5wnVlB7pxbBE_2j9aj6s4aqHvQUUpkLXkpRhFH30J5zIR_au_3-Ul5E7WMd3eHjvr4Y7zcvJd402qasf/s320/993548_729661583073_1213735220106902541_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then we decided to have a night on the town, where we met up with the
couple we had met at the Canyon Swing, Guillaume and also Katrin (a girl we had
met on one of our stray journeys from Germany) as she is working in Queenstown.
We also saw Kookie (our previous stray driver). We had waaaaay too much to
drink...think 2 vodka orange, desperados, half a bottle of wine each, a litre
of beer for $10 in Cowboys (best bar ever, it even has a rodeo you can ride),
plus shots and other drinks...needless to say, I don’t remember much of the
evening and the next day I woke up with THE WORST HANGOVER EVERRRRRRRRR! </div>
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I kid you not, from the moment I woke up at 11am, to the
moment we went to bed, I was throwing up – I couldn’t even keep water down! I
blame the litre of beer! Pierrick even went to get another Fergburger thinking
the grease and a coke would help – which it normally does – nope, I got 3 bites
in and up it came! What a waste of a Hawaiian Fergburger! We had to go shopping
that evening too, in the pissing rain, while violently hungover, which was NOT
fun. As the next day we were leaving for Milford Sound and the place we were
staying for 2 nights was in the middle of nowhere. </div>
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Needless to say, Queenstown
destroyed me and my liver, and when we next go back, I want to actually see the
place and do the walks, rather than just see the toilet bowl! Damn you
Cowboys...</div>
</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Queenstown, New Zealand-45.0311622 168.66264350000006-45.120947199999996 168.50128200000006 -44.9413772 168.82400500000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-56397907975743138802016-02-22T13:30:00.000-08:002016-02-23T14:48:13.308-08:00Our first (and great) work experience mixed with WWOOFING - Judge Rock Pinot Noir Vineyard!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our main reason for coming to New Zealand on a working holiday visa, was to not only travel, but to work. And so it became apparent that halfway through the south island, we may have to top up our funds a little to keep us going until we had finished traveling the south. So when an opportunity arose after a few emails to local Vineyards and Orchards, we took it without hesitation. Initially we were looking for fulltime work, but once we realised that after paying for accommodation and food we really wouldn't make any more money than partime work while we WWOOFed. So therefore, after a bit of thought we contacted back Angela at Judge Rock Vineyard and accepted her offer of 20 hours paid work a week each, and the rest WWOOFING for our food and accommodation. And boy were we glad we did as it was a fantastic experience!<br />
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Paul, Angela's husband, picked us up from the Alexandra i-site at 3pm on Sunday 7th February and we were to start work on the Monday. The Vineyard is around 5mins drive or 30-40mins walk from the centre of town so on evenings or days off it was easy to get into town when we wanted, and even Paul kindly picked us up after he finished work. So a little background on the Vineyard and it's wines;<br />
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Judge Rock are a family run Vineyard that employs two regular vineyard workers, regional sales/distribution members, a farmers market sales person and occasionally when the work is demanding, people like us - backpackers! Their write up is: <i>Elegant - Sensuous - Intimate. Award Winning Pinot Noir wines from the
Jacobson-Chiaroni family boutique vineyard. The wines produced from
this vineyard have received many awards, showcasing the premium quality
of Judge Rock wines. A romance not a blockbuster, feminine not
masculine, balance not power, family not corporate, and love not lust.(Quote-<a href="http://judgerock.co.nz/" target="_blank">their website</a>). </i>And after working here and sampling all their wines every night (at least two glasses a night), I can honestly say it's some of the best wine I've ever tasted!<br />
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The unique location in Central Otago, with cold winters, long, hot, dry summers and crisp evenings, makes for a completely different tasting wine to those grown in other climates. The soil is rich glacial land, and it is a fantastic place to make wine. Cromwell, Alexandra, and Queenstown area are all prime areas for wine cultivation in a unique, beautiful location. The area is best known for it's red wines, whereas Hawkes Bay and Marlborough regions are better known for their whites, mainly because of the climates - warm and rainy in the north all year - best for white wine, cold but hot in the summers down south - best for red wine.<br />
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They offer wine tastings at the Vineyard and they also have a holiday
cottage they rent during the year, with stunning views of the vineyard
and surrounding mountains. Angela and Paul are trying very hard to
market their wine and to get the business booming, and they take pride
in everything they produce and sell, including being very active in food
and wine festivals/events, farmers markets, local sales and
international sales. If anyone is interested, they sell wine on their
website, and they also have UK distributor in Wimbledon, London, as well
as Australia/New Zealand, Singapore, China.<br />
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The family run Vineyard is smaller than most larger, commercialized vineyards at 4 hectares and I think this is far better. It means much care goes into the vineyard, into the wine, into the character of the place. It is planted with 12,000 Pinot Noir vines since 1998, along with some St Laurent vines (a French variety), from these they also produce a Rose wine. They also bottle Riesling under their name, but get these grapes from a specially selected vineyard elsewhere, to fit with their unique taste. I can honestly say that it's very hard to decide which is my favourite, but I love the Riesling, Pinot Noir and St Laurent the best. Because of the unique climate the taste is intense with many different notes to each wine, and they smell divine! I never really understood the smelling and tasting of wine until I came here, but these wines are outstanding and you really can smell and taste the hint of fruits and wood and everything else.<br />
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Our stay came during an important time before the harvest of the wine which is in April - leaf thinning, tucking and putting the nets on so the birds can't get to the grapes! I had always wanted to learn about vineyards, the process of wine growing and making and actually work on one. Even though it can be tough and hard work at times, it's very rewarding work, both for the look of the vineyard, the wine, and also for your body! haha, you definately don't need a gym membership while working on a vineyard! Pierrick wasn't keen at first because his last experience of a vineyard was in Australia where they never paid him, and it was horrible work pruning, there were no grapes and no rewards for the effort he put in. But luckily he was willing to give it another try and hope that it created a better memory for him - and it did! We both came away from this wonderful experience with great memories, better knowledge about vineyards and wine, and with a little money for our efforts. <br />
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We weren't working alone either, we met Sandrina on our first day, a German 19 year old who has become a wonderful friend. She was here for two weeks like us, but on a voluntary work exchange before heading back to study. She had been at a language school in Auckland for a bit then had a rep finding her placements throughout New Zealand, her next placement is on a dairy farm in the north, but she's decided to do Stray around the South Island like us to see a little of the place. There was then two workers, Helen and Barb, who are lovely women and helped us learn about the vineyard and taught us everything we now know about the stages we were helping with. Of course there was also Paul and Angela, our wonderful hosts. Paul enjoyed filling our wine glasses every night and taught us alot about the wines and industry. Angela has Italian in her blood and is a wonderful cook - her meals every evening were amazing, unique, homemade and homegrown mostly (she has a veggie garden) and plenty to go around. We ate recipes that we had never heard of or tried before and it was great - I've come away with some ideas from her cooking! They are both just wonderful company and made us feel so welcome in their business and home. They not only employed us but they took great care of us and that's very rare to find.<br />
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Our accommodation was in a private sleepout just beside the house and opposite the vineyard, very cosy and comfy, and we shared the facilities in the house like the bathroom, kitchen, living room. Every night was movie night and we watched a fair few, and we helped to prepare the evening food and wash up every night as a thanks for the wonderful cooking, Angela provided us lunch. Our hours were 8 hours a day (but during the netting period we worked extra - around 10 hours a day), so 4 hours a day WWOOFing, and 4 hours a day paid (we were also paid for the extra hours we did the first week which was really nice of them). On weekends we just did our WWOOfing hours in one day so we had sunday off, but as it turns out the first weekend we worked extra to get the nets on as it was important, so we just had the one day off, but this didn't bother us - we were here to work and that's what we did, there was plenty of time to have time off once we started traveling again! But we definitely appreciated that one Sunday - just to lie in bed with no alarm!<br />
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So our first week we spent our time lifting the wires on the vines to avoid growth drooping in the way of the grapes, and then we helped thin the leaves - so this means removing around 80% of the leaves around the grape bunches to expose them to enough sunlight to ripen them. At this time of year the grapes are going through a stage called 'Veraison', the term used when the grapes turn from green to red/violet/purple and begin to plump and ripen. Because of this, they become very tasty for birds, so the next step was to put the nets on so that the birds can't get to the much sacred grapes that would produce the wine! The first few days were great, they weren't too hard, but the days were very hot, so we decided to start early in the morning (7am); which allowed us tickets to some spectacular sunrises across the mountains, so that we could finish at 3.30pm so we weren't working too long during the heat of the day. The great thing was that they have a swimming pool, so after work we could just jump in there to cool down and it was sooooooo nice! Especially as I got heat rash a few times so this was perfect to cool the skin down. We also had to make sure we applied suncream regularly (luckily Angela kindly provided this for us all otherwise we would have finished our bottle in 2 days haha) as the New Zealand sun is super super strong (strongest in the world) due to no Ozone layer, so you burn quickly and fiercely.<br />
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It took us until Friday to finish the section we were working on which was the last of the Pinot Noir and the St Laurent area. Pierrick spent Friday biking the whole vineyard taking down all the water sprinklers so it was ready for the nets. Then on Saturday Paul and Angela came out to help us and we started putting the nets on. It was the first time they had their own machine to do it, kind of a spinning rod at the back of the tractor which we put the bails of nets on to then take them over 5 rows while we pulled them on. So it was all trial and error, however we encountered a few problems, mainly because the people they had hired last year to take the nets off, (a contractor with a group of men from Vanuatu) hadn't taken them off and wound them up properly, so we had knots, twists and strings getting stuck in the rod etc which made putting them on way more difficult - when it did work well, it was so much easier and went so much quicker, but the first few we had a lot of twists so we ended up having to just place them on the ground in a row and then come back over the next couple of days to put them on by hand - <i>'We'll have to walk them through'</i> became a phrase we never wanted to hear again haha. It was very physical work putting on the nets and very tough on the arms and hands. We quickly realised on the first day that we were going to need extra hands so Angela contacted the local backpackers looking for two more workers - we stipulated they must be tall and strong, haha. The next day, two tall, strong lads from Germany who had experience with putting on nets arrived and helped us for the next two days and my god were we grateful for their help! It went so much faster and they had so much more strength to pull the nets down and to put the bails on the spindle, and also managed to help us walk the ones through that had twisted as they were tall enough to get the nets over the tall branches and posts of the vines! On the saturday it would seem good luck wasn't on our side as we also had a sand twister, of all the days! So because we hadn't yet secured the nets we'd just put on, the twister ripped through and threw them all off onto other rows, twisting them and basically meaning we had to start from scratch and WALK THEM THROUGH - but we did this with Phillip and Francesco! It was an awesome sight though, seeing all these heavy nets thrown into the air and then a twister follow behind, it was like...did that actually just happen?! And then we assessed the damage and yep, that actually did just happen - mass groan! During putting on the nets we were allowed to swear as many times as we liked haha.<br />
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There was then the last day of nets - we had almost finished our shift - half an hour left and I was helping to hold tension on the spindle so it didn't spin too fast and release the net too quickly, when I first got my arm trapped in a loose string, and then almost fatally got my hand trapped 5 mins later. Needless to say, I went down immediately and the outcome looked like I had at first dislocated my knuckle, but after applying ice and having anti-inflammatory medication the swelling and pain went down a little and it just was very badly bruised and I was able to move my hand again. I got my name in the accident book! lol Luckily I didn't need any time off work and was back working the next day - the final day of nets! We finished them on Monday but we had to continue sorting them out until Tuesday/Wednesday WALKING THEM THROUGH. The guys unfortunately had to leave us for another job so we said goodbye to them. It was then time to start tying them up and securing them. So every 5 rows we had to criss-cross the string closing all the gaps and tying each net to each other/the wire on the vines so there was no way for birds to get in. Again, great for the arms! We had a few problems with there not being enough net to pull over and tie so again we had to walk a few through. We also had to secure the outsides of the vineyard down with rocks/bricks, and tie the fronts of every 5th row into gates for entry. This took us until Thursday, and then Pierrick had to go back around the vineyard, this time walking it (it works out around 14km in total!) putting back all the sprinklers, and sewing the holes around them. He also almost got put in the accident book, as during this, he managed to hit himself on the forehead with the monkey wrench, while putting up a difficult sprinkler, cutting his head and almost passing out! I laughed when he told me this, bad I know!<br />
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Me, Sandrina and Helen and Barb then went through the whole vineyard sewing up any holes in the nets so that no birds could get through these to the grapes, which was work for the neck and arms as you were constantly looking up and sewing above you. But it was very satisfying work when we finished on Monday (yesterday) and could look back at the vineyard at our great work knowing the grapes were safe! There were a few birds in the net after we put them on so Paul went round in the tractor making noise and opening a few gaps in the nets to get them out which was successful. It's just getting the dogs Tui, and Barbs dog Jay, to chase the rabbits in there now.<br />
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When we leave, Barb and Helen then spend the next couple of weeks going through the whole vineyard again, removing the shoulder grape bunches off the main bunches to allow the main energy to be focused on ripening the main fruit bunch, taking more leaves off if it's too heavy and not enough sun coming through, and then they spend a few weeks off, just waiting for the fruit to fully ripen, then in April - it's harvest time! From harvest to bottle it takes almost a year, last years wine from their April harvest is bottled in March this year and so forth. They send their harvest down to Vinepro in Cromwell who make the wine for them, and it takes the roughly the full fruit of two vines to make one bottle! I would love to do a harvest one day, just to see how that part works and then also see how they make the wine and bottle it - maybe one day either here or in France or somewhere!<br />
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I have to say though, one of the best things about having the opportunity to work abroad and have visas in different countries, is being able to do something new, experience a new field of work, learn new things and broaden your horizons. I don't think I will ever be a girl who settles for just one job, one career - there are far too many opportunities out there to settle for just one. Even though people with high flying careers may look down on a cleaner, a vineyard worker, a hospitality worker etc, not many people can say they have done those jobs (or worked in more than one profession that probably doesn't even make them happy) and have experienced how rewarding they are, how exciting learning something new is, and how much you can push yourself. If I could ever pass on some knowledge from these experiences it's to seize every opportunity you can, there is nothing too low or too high that you can ever do, every job is as good as the rest, money doesn't matter as long as you enjoy what they inspire in you. They may be hard work and not very well paid, but I love knowing that I have worked in different countries, worked in something new every time, learnt something new either on the job or about myself, made new friends, and most of all, have lasting memories to cherish. <br />
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Our experience here at Judge Rock has been a great one, and we even came away with some pocket money. Our hosts were wonderful, their wine exquisite and their workers a pleasure to work with. I couldn't reccommend them highly enough and I will definitely be buying their wine in the future, knowing that we once helped them and remembering fond memories and I will definitely recommend their wines to others. I really hope the vineyard continues to flourish and wish them all the best for the future, maybe one day we will be back, who knows!<br />
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From here we have booked onward travel to Queenstown on Wednesday, where we will be back on the backpacker Stray bus and ready for some more adventures! We have a tandem Canyon Swing (70m freefall drop and a 300m arc swing over a canyon) booked for Thursday, a night on the town with $50 of drinks vouchers courtesy of Peter Pans Travel Agency and then onto Milford Sound and Te Anau where we will hopefully meet with Ivana and her boyfriend again. We are hoping to do some stunning treks through the Southlands/Fiordlands over the next week and then headed down to Stewart Island. We will be sad to leave Judge Rock, but we are looking forward to another New Zealand Chapter!</div>
Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Alexandra, New Zealand-45.232815 169.37238100000002-45.322272000000005 169.21101950000002 -45.143358 169.53374250000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-64917746605737391752016-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:002016-02-22T17:21:43.346-08:00Hitch-Hiking to Wanaka and Skydive number two!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, as I never got around to blogging about my first skydive in Australia (maybe one day I will write that 7 week trip up!) I thought I definitely need to write about the 2nd - and it was quite an adventurous journey there.<br />
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We had been WWOOFing for two weeks with Fay, sanding down her house and painting undercoat on, plus stripping wallpaper and other odd jobs like gardening at her daughters farm. We had the Saturday off before leaving on Sunday to our casual job on a local Vineyard in Alexandra, Central Otago.<br />
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So we asked if we could use the car to get to Wanaka to do our skydive, which was all good so we booked it. But the night before at 8pm Fay told us that she didn't think the car was safe enough to take as she had bumped it into a tree stump earlier that week and the bumper had half come off, which was fair enough. The only problem is we couldn't cancel the skydive as we would lose our money and we didn't know when to reschedule for. It was too late to try and arrange a lift there so our only option left was to wake up a little earlier and hitch hike there.<br />
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We had never hitched before so it was bound to either be a good experience or a bad one and we were hoping for a good one after the 2 weeks of bad weather.<br />
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In the morning we woke up super hyped and excited, made our signs to Wanaka and back to Roxburgh and then waiting on the road outside the house, thumbs up, signs out, boobs out and skirt hitched up (haha only joking). It didn't take long (around 10mins) for our first ride to pull up, James, a lovely dreadlocked dude from Dunedin. He was headed to Queenstown for a concert so he could take us to the junction in Cromwell which was a huge chunk of the journey done!<br />
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We made the normally hour long ride in record time (40mins) as he was a speed breaking lunatic but he could handle the roads and was a great character to chat to.<br />
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He dropped us at the junction in Cromwell and then we had our last leg to go - and it was only 10.30am! We walked a little further along to a fruit shop with a layby as there was another hitch-hiker and we didn't want to ruin his chances as he had all his bags too. There we waited for no more than 5-10mins when a van load of guys (about 10 of them) from Vanuatu came along and picked us up - lucky they had space for us! And drove us the 40mins to Wanaka. Again they were a lovely crew and we got to listen to some local music of theirs from home.<br />
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Once in Wanaka it was lunch time and so we went and got lunch from New World and had a picnic by the lake and ended up sharing our space with a lovely elderly Canadian couple who we had a fabulous chat with.<br />
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It was then...pickup time!! While our guide drove us to the airport we watched a safety video and how to prepare to jump out of the plane. In Australia they call it 'The banana' because you basically have to form the shape of a banana on the edge of the plane two seconds before jumping. Legs under the belly of the plane, hips out and head against the instructors left shoulder, hands holding onto your harness...then you jump! But to be honest you only literally have two seconds to do all of that so I have no idea if anyone actually ever really becomes a banana, more like a 'oh shit' and then your gone.<br />
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So we got to the skydive base where we signed in, paid for Pierrick's pictures (I didn't get pictures as it was too expensive and I already have them from Australia). We then had to change into our full body suits (they make you look like a condom its hilarious!) and wait until our names were called.<br />
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I was quite impressed as Pierrick still didn't feel nervous, or at least that's what he told me! We then had a lovely girl from Taiwan strap us into our harnesses and 10mins later, after the plane before us had landed, our instructors re-packed their parachutes and cane in to meet us...ready to go up again. You could tell they were tired - imagine every hour you have to go up, jump, then come down and do it all again.<br />
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Everyone in our plane headed off with their instructor, except me, who seemed to be missing an instructor, I had a little mini panic thinking I wasn't jumping with the same group as Pierrick but then good ol' Boris came running out apologising as he had needed the toilet - bless, I'd forgive him! He was from Serbia and had been jumping for yearsjump was actually excited it was my second jump as he said he could 'do more exciting things' this had my heart pumping. The only question I had was how to breathe during the freefall and he laughed saying many 2nd timers asked this as they normally find out in their first jump whether they found it hard to breathe, which for those of you who have seen my skydive video know that I had 60 seconds of sheer panic because I couldn't catch my breath lol its very entertaining - cheeks puffed out like a hamster struggling for breath with a 'oh fuck I'm going to pass out' expression! He told me that once he levels out and taps me on the shoulder I could either put my hands out in front of my face to shield the air flow, or breathe threw a teethy grin or my nose. So at least I had this down now, maybe I could actually enjoy the freefall this time.<br />
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So we started our ascent in the plane, I was in front of Pierrick, I kept checking he was OK and he was...until he saw the first two girls jump at 12,000ft, then he began to get nervous! The view from 15,000ft before we jumped though was amazing. You could not only see Lake Wanaka, the surrounding mountains and river, but also Queenstown lake which is over an hour away by car, and what they call here the Southern Alps - so many snow capped peaks! Mount Aspiring national park, Mount Cook (the highest peak of new Zealand) all the ski resorts (Treble Cone, Cardrona, Twin peaks, Coronet etc.) And you could also just about aee the coast line on either side. It was amazing! In fact, my lasting memory of this skydive will forever be the freefall I actually enjoyed, looking out over the lake with the snow capped mountains behind, it was quite literally breath-taking.<br />
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So when we had reached our jump height (15,000ft, 60 second freefall at 200kmh) it was time for the guy in front of me, then me to jump (Pierrick was unfortunately last, afterwards he told me he was shit-scared when we started seeing everyone else sit on the edge and then just disapeer, and it says its all in his photos!)<br />
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So we took off our oxygen masks (they gave us these at 12,000ft for some reason (we didn't have this in Australia), Boris quickly adjusted my harness, we put our goggles in place and our awful hats, which completed the condom look, and then banana-ed! Just before we shuffled down to the door, Boris shouted in my ear that the exciting thing was he was going to flip me loads (more than first timers) before we levelled out for the freefall. So I was suddenly excited-nervous. And let me tell you he certainly flipped me! The only feeling I can describe the fall out of the plane, is complete weightlessness, Pierrick said it was like a bungy, that feeling when you are falling in your dreams except this time you don't wake up, you live it out. You have no idea which way is down as most of the time you just see sky when you flip, and your heart goes into your throat, your stomach into you lungs and you momentarily forget how to breathe. It really is the most surreal feeling but somehow that adrenaline burst just keeps you going back to have that feeling again and again (well for me its like that). Boris must of flipped us around 4-5 times, normally you only flip once or twice if you are a newbie, and then he levelled us out. He then, bless him, put his hands in front of my face to block the air for me to breathe, but far enough away so I could still see the view, and my God, it helped sooooo much! I actually breathed normally the whole 60 seconds and I just remember laughing and admiring the amazing view, I took a mental note to snapshot this moment and I still can see the picture in my mind, the lake out in front of me, the snowcapped mountains to my right, the turquoise river beneath me and Queenstown lake and the hills/ski resorts to my left. The rush of the freefall ends when the parachute comes out and then you just float your way down to the ground. They let you have a go on the ropes sometimes, but even though it was a hot day, the wind draft was crazy so we lost height pretty quickly and Boris had to control the parachute so we didn't crash into the other jumpers (one went right beneath us, my feet skimmed their parachute). I also remember seeing Pierrick free falling as our parachute opened, it was pretty cool knowing he was currently shitting his pants lol.<br />
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Unfortunately a skydive is over before you know it - within 5-10mins, especially when the wind is not on your side. So our landing position was legs up and slide in on your bum!<br />
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Once down I waited for Pierrick to land before grabbing a quick photo from his photographer, then we went inside, took our gear off and had fun watching his picture slideshow - hilarious!<br />
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The trickiest part was yet to come - the bitch hike back to Roxburgh. We decided to pitch outside the airport as there was no point going back into Wanaka, as the airport was on the way to Cromwell.<br />
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It took us 1.5 hours in the blazing heat to get our first ride...and that was with the skydive pickup guide who had also picked up 3 other hitch hikers from Wanaka and was headed to Luggate on his way home, so be could drop us there, which was at least 5 mins up the road!<br />
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Then when we got out in Luggate an American guy left the pub opposite us and seeing we were about to put up our sign, called out an offered us a lift to Cromwell - woo! He was a lovely guy from New York who had been here for 9 months already and was going home soon. It turned out he didn't really like the look of Cromwell to spend the night in so decided to head to Alexandra and took us with him...even better that was only half hour from Roxburgh. Bless him we were so thankful!<br />
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We then walked to the bridge on the road to Roxburgh and it only took us another 15mins to find a lift with a high school girl, her mother and her brother who were all on their way back to down near Invercargill from a motorbike event. They were lovely and we were chatting so much we almost missed our stop!<br />
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Needless to say our first day trip hitch hike was a success and if we ever need to get somewhere short-distance without a car again, we could definitely do it. We both came back exhausted after the adrenaline rush ended and we spent the evening laughing our heads off at Pierrick's pictures. Well we had at least finally done our skydive, something we both, Pierrick especially, had been looking forward to doing for over a year! Woohoo, success! Enjoy laughing at some classic pictures!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Wanaka, New Zealand-44.7031813 169.1320981-44.8837148 168.8093746 -44.522647799999994 169.4548216tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-22196330489270163162016-01-24T19:40:00.000-08:002016-02-04T19:42:01.354-08:00They say bad luck comes in three's - bad weather, cancellations and little hope!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So we left Takaka and headed on another Stray-cation towards Marahau - the gateway to the Abel Tasman. We'd heard amazing things about the Abel Tasman - crystal turquoise waters, golden deserted sandy bays and some of New Zealand's best waters for kayaking. So you can imagine how disappointed we were that, due to a cyclone off the coast of northern Australia, New Zealand was in for a cyclone-backlash-hammering in the weather forecasts. It was supposed to hit the next day (our only full day in the Abel Tasman) and it was forecast to last a whole 2 weeks! Cyclone depressions are nasty, they bring torrential rain, strong winds and humidity! We couldn't have chosen a worst week to hop back on our 'Stray-cation', but when you travel you can't predict the weather and sometimes don't have the luxury to wait around for it to get better, so we put on our raincoats and braved it out - at least it wasn't cold! It seems we had used up all our good weather luck on the north Island!<br />
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Hopping back on the Stray bus we bumped into Daniel - an English guy who had been with us on the East Bro tour! Turns out he'd be with us until he hopped off at Franz Josef at the end of the week. Our driver for this Stray-cation was Kookie, an Irish guy who was getting citizenship in New Zealand. He was a super chilled-out entertaining driver. Our accommodation at Marahau was superb - we had a double room/cabin for the same price as a dorm bed. Though this Stray-cation we learnt that whatever prices Kookie gave us, you had to add one or two dollars onto the price when you arrived, because it seemed they had upped their prices - typical!<br />
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Our first full day at the Abel Tasman was forecast to rain, but when we woke up it was just humid and overcast, so we decided to chance a walk. We hadn't booked a kayak as we didn't want to be in the middle of the ocean if the weather turned bad, and it was a good job we didn't! We set off at 10am to do a 4hr return walk along part of the famous Abel Tasman Coastal Track - a walk which could take you a total of 3-4 days if you camped along the way. We stopped off at idylic little bays along the way and had lunch on a beautiful beach. Even though it was overcast we still glimpsed the sun occasionally and along with it, a hint of those turquoise waters and golden sands. The walk was long but pretty but around 1pm we decided to head back just in case those forecast rain clouds hit. Lucky we did, because exactly 10mins after we returned at exactly 3pm when it was forecast...the rain hit! And boy did it hit! Solid, torrential rain which lasted a good 8-9 hours! The campsite where we were staying was flooded in no time, poor campers came in the evening and tried to pitch their tents in ankle deep water...so most slept in their cars! Needless to say the afternoon was a right off so we all just stayed in our rooms until it was BURGER TIME!<br />
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We were scheduled to go down to the Marahau Fat Tui burger hut at 8pm, which apparently had burgers to rival the Ferg Burger (famous burger place in Queenstown). Burgers the size of your head we were told - and boy did they live up to it! The only problem was the rain...ah...how do we get there we ask? - already soaked through just by walking to the kitchen area. Low and behold, along came knight in shining armour, Kookie, in his mighty orange Stray Bus! The bugger had decided he couldn't let us all walk down in the rain (which by now had turned into a thunder storm), especially as the only place to eat in Fat Tui's was outside, so we would have to takeaway. We hopped on the bus and he drove us down the road where we awaited our freshly cooked huuuuuge cheeseburgers and chips (I had to get a fried pineapple ring for dessert too) and then all hopped back on and he drove us back to eat them. And they were huge! Homemade patties and bun - all the size of a small head! Yum! Perfect way to end a rainy day.<br />
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The next day we left at 8.30am to Westport, and it rained from 8am, until we got to Westport at around 3pm. We did a short walk along the coast while waiting for the surfers and our check-in time at the hostel. We saw seals and had a great time chatting, getting to know some more people on our bus. That evening some people went on a brewery tour but most of us decided to just chill in the really nice hostel and get to know each other. Our good friends on this bus became Zuzanna from the Czech Republic, Verena; Germany, Sergei; USA, Lockie; Australia, Daniel; UK, Caoimhe and Blaithnaid; Ireland, and of course Kookie our driver!<br />
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The next day we were packed and gone by 7am, as our drive down to Franz Josef was a long one. We made a morning stop, for a river walk, while we waited for our bone carvers, where it tipped it down with rain halfway through - damn you Bone Carvers! Then we made another stop at the Punaikaiki Rocks (Pancake rocks) yup you guessed it - they look like pancakes! They are pretty damn awesome and there are some blowholes but even though the weather wasn't great, the sea wasn't rough enough to make them proper blow-holes! We then went through to Greymouth, where we had a stop for 2 hours?! for no reason (well some more bone carvers), it was wet and horrible so other than going to Warehouse to get Pierrick a much needed raincoat, we just sat in MacDonalds and used their WiFi, as there is nothing to do in Greymouth! Then we stopped for another break in Hokitika where we said goodbye to Verena as she was staying to be an Au Pair for a while. Then we eventually made our way to Franz Josef!<br />
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Now, at Franz Josef Glacier we had booked an Ice Explorer activity as this, along with Fox Glacier, are two of the fastest receding and easily accessible glaciers in the world and New Zealand. They are also the most unique Glaciers in the world, being two of the only
three Glaciers in the world bound by rainforest and coastline. So of course, most of us wanted to see these babies and climb on them! So we checked into the glacier heli-hike company and were given a talk about our heli-hike - but they could only give us a 50/50 chance of going. Basically, if the glacier is covered in cloud, it's deemed unsafe for the helicopters to land. So far they had called off 5 days of their tours, and it seemed our luck wasn't great, as there wasn't a great chance it would be clear tomorrow morning. We got to the hostel we were staying at - the rainforest retreat and their pizza deal (all you can eat pizza - it keeps coming til you say stop), was full - so no one could have that! (Bloody Kiwi Experience taking all the spaces!) Another piece of bad luck had struck! That evening we all had a few drinks in the Rainforest retreat bar where we were staying and the guys Lockie and Sergei had decided to dress as ladies that night, so that was pretty entertaining and they were very convincing!<br />
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The next morning our Ice Explorer was scheduled for 8.45am so we awoke with fresh hopes - we had all heard a helicopter take off this morning and the sky was semi-clear! Plus the 8am group we hadn't seen come back yet - that had to mean they had taken off didn't it? Nope. We were so wrong. Upon entering the building a girl regretted to inform us that all of the mornings tours had been cancelled, the next tour was the afternoon slots and it wasn't yet confirmed if they were cancelled. Our best bet? To try and nab a spot on the afternoon slots. We got to the front desk...all the afternoon slots were full - gahhhhh! So we got put on the wait list and had to wait around until we were told someone wasn't showing up - fat chance! But at 10am we were told two spaces were available for the midday tour - yay! We then had to wait around until midday to see whether it would go ahead, but the clouds were beginning to hide the glacier, and rain was forecast for later that day, which meant our hopes were slimming. We were told that the pilots needed a four hour window of good weather to be able to take off, so we basically knew it would be cancelled but had to wait until 11.55am to be told, yep, all the afternoon ones were being cancelled and they would probably be cancelling for the next 5 days...so there wasn't even a chance we could stay longer to try to do it. So, bad luck strikes again!<br />
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The only good thing was that we have a voucher that is valid for one year, so we can come back at anytime and do it, the only bad thing was that we had wasted two nights of expensive accommodation and would have to waste another two to come back someday and do it....grrrr. We will have to make sure we pick two awesome sunny days!<br />
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So the rest of the day we just chilled, sat in the hostel hot tub (the largest one in New Zealand), and then went for drinks with the crew again in the evening. It was Daniels last evening with us so I had challenged him to, during his time in New Zealand A. grow a beard for the ladies, B. Do a skydive and C. a canyon swing - just to challenge himself to something daring and new - so how's it going so far Daniel?! Still got that beard I hope for people like 'Big nipples' to swoon over?! haha. We also all debated over the two Hong Kongese people who had boarded our bus in Greymouth as to whether one was a male or a female...it's to be confirmed!<br />
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The next day was another early morning for our journey down to Wanaka. It was also me and Pierrick's anniversary! We said our goodbyes to Daniel and headed to Matheson Lake (Mirror lake) where we did a nice morning walk before the rain set in. However the clouds hid the amazing snow-capped mountains that were supposed to be mirrored in the lake - boo. We were also supposed to stop for lunch at a lovely beach - weather said no. Also sandfly swarm said no - I'm going to eat you all alive!<br />
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So instead we had lunch on the bus and when the weather cleared up, went for a walk to the blue pools in the Haarst Valley within <span class="_Xbe">Mount Aspiring National Park. They really were blue!</span><br />
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<span class="_Xbe">Then we hit up Wanaka - our final destination as we were hopping off the bus here. We had one more thing that we all really wanted to do - a boat cruise round Lake Wanaka, watching the sunset, with 3 free drinks and a BBQ...but guess what?! It was too windy, so they cancelled it - GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! </span><br />
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<span class="_Xbe">So instead we all just had the BBQ which was pretty shit - a cold potato, salad and a tiny burger and one sausage, oh and a free drink - all for $12! Never again Base Hostels - you really aren't that great! The night was good but it wasn't the party that everyone wanted - in fact it was dead in the bar, so we said our goodbyes around 11pm.</span><br />
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<span class="_Xbe">We had a skydive booked for Wanaka but again the weather forecast was shit, and we had paid alot for the view so there's no point doing it when it's cloudy, so that's another thing we'd have to come back and do - grrrr! Instead we just walked around Wanaka for a couple of days, biding time until our next WWOOFing place in Roxburgh, Central Otago on Monday. We had a fantastic curry for our belated anniversary meal and we spent one night and one day in Cromwell, where our host Fay, would pick us up. The hostel in Cromwell was one of the best I have ever stayed in - an old converted medical centre, it was a small and cosy hostel. During the day in Cromwell we went for a walk down to the heritage centre, the lake and the town centre - there really isn't much to do in Cromwell! Then we met Fay. Our bad weather lasted well into the next week, but it gets better, and we do eventually get to do at least one of our activities while WWOOFing, with the prospects of some casual work to save a few pennies - with bad luck comes good they say? Hopefully that will be my next blog post!</span><br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Wanaka, New Zealand-44.7031813 169.1320981-44.8837148 168.8093746 -44.522647799999994 169.4548216tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5295475483137749199.post-17792152810060172712016-01-17T21:04:00.001-08:002016-01-17T21:04:56.797-08:00Takaka and the Golden Bay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Upon meeting Abbie and little Pippa, her 2 year old daughter we were taken back to the farm where we were made to feel at home and had our first lush homecooked meal - Spag bol! The meals with Abbie and Travis were amazing as well, lots of curry, pasta, roasts, etc. We met Travis after he had finished milking the cows and also met a friend of theirs who came over for dinner.<br />
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We started work the next day and really we didn't work much over the next week and a half! We did around 2 hours everyday and had two days off to explore the area. Our main job was painting a bedroom and a hallway as Abbie was expecting another baby in March so it was in preparation for that. The spare room was being converted into a baby room. We had to strip the wallpaper and then paint over with an undercoat and 2 coats of paint. We got the undercoat finished in the first day and then we just went for a walk in the afternoon. The next day we had off to go into Takaka and we met the New Zealand Wizard, or Gandalf as he is known. He's a total hippy guy who is an ex cop and decided one day that he didn't want to be in the system any more and so just smokes and became a Wizard, and does everything he can to promote how we are being screwed by the governments etc. It's actually a very cool guy.<br />
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That evening we were invited along to a BBQ at Abbie's Parents friends house which was right on Pohara beach front and the BBQ was amazing - Lamb and pork chops, steak, sausages, burgers...!<br />
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Other days we went for walks, Abbie's Parents and their friends came over and they took us Salmon Fishing at the Anatoki Salmon farm down the road. Bait and fishing rod is free and each fish you catch is around $22 then you can choose to have it filleted, smoked or into Sashimi. As it was a beautiful day the place was rammed so it was tricky trying to catch any fish. But patience paid off as after half an hour or so Pierrick managed to catch the first one! Then he chucked the rod back in without thinking he'd get anything, just as a way of passing time, and 5mins later, he had another one! So this time I said I would kill it instead of Abbie's dad. We then got one smoked in basil and garlic to take home and one Sashimi for lunch and it only cost us $22! It was amazing!<br />
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We also spent one very hot afternoon down by their private piece of river and Travis brought down the tubes and after taking ages to get used to how cold the water was, we tubed down the river.<br />
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Travis also took us out one evening to see the cows being milked. Obviously with 700 cows its not by hand so he showed us the milking shed, how they round up the cows, how they are milked (by a rotating 52 hold milking platform) and how it all worked, where the milk goes after etc. It was super interesting! He also took us down to see the pigs which they kept for meat and their Kune Kune (Koo-nay) pet pig Smudge who looks a bit like Pumba from the Lion King.<br />
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We finished the painting on the Tuesday and so after that our chores were a little bit of cleaning here and there, windows and skirting boards, doors, kitchen and bathrooms. On the following thursday Abbie took us out sightseeing to the Golden Bay and Farewell Spit which was really nice of her. She took us up to Travis parents farm, into Collingwood and up to the Spit then we went for pie and a famous homebrewed Cider at the Mussel Inn.<br />
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Friday Abbie's Parents were coming to stay so we had to leave their house and luckily Travis's brother needed us to look after their pets and housesit while they were away for the weekend which suited us fine! We got to look after their two young kittens and dog and just had to hoover the house but basically they said help yourself to food and enjoy the hot tub! Which we did! Lol<br />
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On the Saturday was the annual Takaka Agricultural and Pastural show which is basically the event of the year and a farmers convention plus fairground for the kids so we went to check it out and walked into Takaka one last time before we were due to leave. We said our goodbyes to the Wizard!<br />
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On Sunday it was time to leave Golden Bay and Abbie's Parents kindly gave us a lift back to Motueka which is where we would pick up the Stray bus to the Abel Tasman National Park that afternoon. It had been another wonderful WWOOFing experience and we hope it continues!<br />
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Xtina - The Tiny Travellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07326708557672707417noreply@blogger.com0Takaka, New Zealand-40.8544826 172.80621070000007-41.0465631 172.48348720000007 -40.662402099999994 173.12893420000006