Thu
31
Dec '09
Bali has definitely lived up to it’s reputation as an amazing island. Pictures: Jay’s Bali Picasa Gallery.
Archive for December, 2009
Sun
27
Dec '09
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 […]
Fri
25
Dec '09
Working on an seperate page with an Overview of the Trip. The first 3 weeks are in New Zealand, starting and ending in Auckland. Each stop after that is for 2-5 days. New Zealand -> Sydney -> Bali -> Tokyo -> Bangkok -> Cairo -> London -> Budapest -> Dublin. Jay’s birthday will be celebrated […]
Fri
25
Dec '09
The first 3 weeks of the trip will be spent in New Zealand. The flight out of Austin leaves on July 2nd, and lands in Auckland the morning of July 4th. We decided not to plan the entire trip for New Zealand yet. The current plan is to spend 2/3rds of the time on […]
Wed
23
Dec '09
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 […]
Tue
22
Dec '09
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 […]
Sun
20
Dec '09
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 […]
Sun
20
Dec '09
Along the way back to Auckland, we stopped at a few different small towns. When we got to Whangarei , I was tired of driving through twisting roads in the rain, so we stopped for the night. Actually looked like it was going to be a happening Saturday night in this random town. However, after […]
Mon
14
Dec '09
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 […]
Mon
14
Dec '09
From Rotorua A few days in Auckland is you need before you decide it is time to get a little more mobile. That being the case, we went to the airport to find a rental car. Imagine my surprise when Jay and I handed the guy entirely different looking Texas IDs, one which a dog […]