Pictures from World Travel Log
Boarding the plane is Cairo, at 4 am Greenwich Mean Time made for a very long first day in London. Getting from the airport to the hostel was no big deal. In fact, it was great to find that the hostel is on top of a bar and that reception is at the end opposite of the beer taps! Within in an hour of being in London the disappointment of the past two days was completely gone. Continue reading "London Bridge Is Not Falling Down" »
This is a somewhat difficult comment to write, but Egypt was a huge disappointment. Like most people, a life goal is to see the great grand Pyramids. Egypt was overrun by multiple nations for hundreds of years. Some of the best treasures were stolen, er borrowed. The ancient civillization we learned about in school is entirely gone. Continue reading "I took the pictures of Egypt for you…." »
Arriving at midnight in the Bangkok airport made it easy to get through Immigration, find a cab, and get to the hotel. After being in Bangkok, I have a feeling the Bali experience would have been different if we stayed in a large city like Jakarta. While Bangkok certainly has its 3rd-world moments, it really is a 2nd-world location.
The Mohawked Taxi driver dropped us off at what looked like an alley, but assured us the hotel was just down the road a little. It was a shady walk to say the least, but he was right. The hotel was at the end of the road. The budget hotel offered free breakfast, free internet, private rooms, private bathrooms, and A/C. The cost? Some where between $20 and 25 USD a night.
While in Bangkok we visited the Golden Palace, the city of Siam, caught a night of Kickboxing, took boats around the Floating Markets, saw a live cobra and snake show, and visited the famous Tiger Temple. We packed our two days with as much as possible.
Tokyo is so huge, it is almost unfathomable how it could be called a city. Alone, Tokyo’s economy is larger than all of Canada. There are over 20 different districts, each with their own charms. Planning a quick stop in Tokyo is difficult on the first visit. There is simply too much to see or do. This was a place where filling in time around one or two goals was easy to do, and probably more productive than extensive planning.
On arrival to Despensar, I had to purchase a $25 Visa on Arrival (VOA) before going through Immigration. Just over an hour passed from the time I landed until the time I touched my checked-baggage. Before I could grab my bag, a man with some kind of badge grabbed it and escorted me to the security screening area. While troubling, the process seemed official. Then the escort continued past the guards, with guns, to a specific money changer. At this point, I realized the guy carrying my bag was wearing a shirt that said “porter.” The “badge” was just some phony looking thing, to give him minimal credibility. The man refused to return my bag until I gave him 20,000Rp ($20). Welcome to Bali.
A stroll down Legian Street in Kuta will leave you exhausted, but if you like to haggle and buy cheap stuff – this is the place for you. The street is like a circus. Every few steps you will be asked if you want “transport”, “massage”, or to “have a look” in a shop.
Continue reading "Shopping in Bali" »
The flight from New Zealand to Sydney was pretty short, but the overall day was long. We started first thing in the morning with a flight from Christchurch to Auckland, then the international flight to Sydney. By the time I made it to the room in the hostel, it was around 8pm.
Bali has definitely lived up to it’s reputation as an amazing island.
Pictures: Jay’s Bali Picasa Gallery.
Anyone that talks about Queenstown brings up three different activities: Bungy Jumping, Skydiving, and Skiing. Unlike most people, Skydiving does not really scare me. Of course I say this before I have actually gone. While I do not doubt diving over New Zealand’s Southern Alps would be amazing, we just couldn’t fit it into our schedule. There was enough time for Bungy Jumping and Skiing.
We arrived on Wednesday night, but booked bungy for Thursday afternoon and Skiing all day Friday. The hostel we were staying at was booked for the weekend, like almost everything else in town, so we didn’t get a private room. Sleeping in a dorm with 5 other people was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Of course, after skiing for an entire day I was sleeping like a rock in no time.
Bungy Jumping
Queenstown is home of the World’s First Bungy Site, operated by the international company, A.J. Hackett. In addition to the Kawarau Bridge, there are two other sites in Queenstown with the highest being about 150meters high, each over a canyon. My first preference was that site, but only 1 spot was available and I finally got Jay to agree to jump. Since we couldn’t do a canyon jump, we decided the bridge would make for better pictures AND it was the first site ever! The company operating the 43meter high bridge, has never had a major injury. That is pretty impressive considering each day they do between 80 and 100 jumps in the winter, and over 150 jumps in the summer!
While getting strapped in, I told myself I would not hesitate. It wasn’t until I got on the ledge that being scared set in. The girl that went before me made the process look pretty easy. Get strapped in, walked to the ledge, and jump. After you are done, you get lowered into a raft which takes you to shore. The straps were not quite what I expected. I thought my feet would go into a special harness. Instead, I wore a waist harness, while the bungy rope was literally wrapped around my ankles. Wrapped very tightly.
Holding to what I said I would do, I jumped immediately after the 3-2-1 count down. The moment my feet left the ledge I asked myself, “what the hell am I doing?!” The freefall only lasted for about 2 seconds, which was just enough time to realize what was happening. After that, I just swung around until being lowered onto the raft. The video and pictures make it look like I almost touched the water. If I had to guess, I was probably at least 10 feet from the water. On such a cold day, I did not want to get wet!
Minus 5
Bungy jumping definitely got my heart going, so I was ready to calm it down some. So we headed to a bar called Minus 5. There are several in New Zealand. The entire bar is inside of a cold room, kept slightly below zero (celcuis). The walls, chairs, bar, and even the glasses are all made out of ice. Being this cold, you are only permitted to stay in the room for 30 minutes. There is a reservation process to schedule your time. The ticket price includes one or two vodka based cocktails. Minus 5 claims they only serve vodka since it is the only liquor that doesn’t freeze at these temperatures, but I suspect Absolute arranged an exclusive deal.
In any event, it was pretty cool. One of those places that you go once, but not really much of a reason to visit a second time.
Skiing
The first winter I lived in Colorado, my “roommate” injured her ankle. The doctor she visited suggested no ski or snow boarding for the season, so neither of us went. During the 2nd winter, I was so focused on moving back to Austin and traveling so much, I was never in town for a ski weekend. After growing up in the snow and living less than an hour away from some of the best resorts in the world, I still never learned to ski.
Which actually works out, because I learned to Ski or Coronet Peak in New Zealand, from Mathiu. Mathiu was an Italian ski instructor that would come to NZ for their winter and say in Italy for his. The group I was in was an interesting bunch. A couple of Australians, fellow New Zealanders, and all thought skiing was the scariest thing ever.
It took me most of the morning to get comfortable. The pace we were moving at was too slow for me. In the afternoon, we got to do runs on our own. By the time the day was over, I had finally go the hang of it. Go figure.
Last Night There
With a couple of action packed day, we spent the time in dorm rooms and headed to Franz Josef in the morning.
Travel Date: 7.15.09 to 7.16.09
Before leaving Auckland, we made use of Base ACB’s Travel Desk to book some South Island time. Kez helped make most of the arrangements. After about an hour with her, we decided that since we were flying into Christchurch(CSC), we would stay there a night before making the 5-6 hour drive down to Queenstown. We intended to visit Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin (pronounced do-nee-din) and then drive back up to CSC. (This changed after visiting Queentown.)
Christchurch
Once Kez was done booking our next couple of days, I asked her what we should do while in Christchurch. Her response was to roll her eyes, then said to grab some dinner and get an early start to Queenstown. When I arrived, I completely understood. While a perfectly fine town, there really isn’t much to do especially compared to other New Zealand cities. So we took her advice and made the trip down to Queenstown first thing in the morning.
Well, this was after the rental car agent explained how to use snow chains.
6 Hour Drive
Like the rest of New Zealand, there are no freeways between the major cities. So you must drive rural highways which take you through towns. Much of the South Island is covered by the alps, which makes for twisty roads. The new rental car was an automatic, which made for a much easier drive.
When I first landed in Christchurch, I could already tell the temperature was much lower. In fact, it was near 35(F) degrees. After about an hour of driving we got our first look at some snow, which we would see pretty much all the way into Queenstown.
These photos are just some of the spectacular views we came across. If you look at the Picasa Album, you’ll be able to see on a map (or in Google Earth) where these were taken.
The Sheep
Just outside of Queenstown, we drove by a sheep farm which was right on the road. As I mentioned before, I really wanted to get a picture of a me next to a sheep. Actually, Jay and I were both hoping to get stuck on a road, while waiting for a herd to cross. In any case, we saw this farm and thought it was our chance to get a sheep picture. As soon as I approached the fence, the sheep started to run away! Even standing perfectly still for a few minutes did not get them to come closer. Though, I did notice that they were (apparently) fascinated by me. Isn’t this a creepy looking picture?
Although we didn’t have radio for most of the drive, it went by pretty quickly. We rolled into Queenstown right around 6pm, which looked like rush hour. It was obvious driving through the City Centre that this town was where I parked my car.
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