Egypt adventure

Early morning this morning- 3am for the drive to Abu Simbel in Aswan. I couldn't sleep on the coach but wasn't as tired as I had expected. We ha a police convoy escort us a major leg of the journey. We arrived and Micky, our tour guide told us all to watch the Nile river as we climbed down to view the temple. We did as he requested and at the bottom turned our heads to see the giant statues that made up the entrance to the impressive temple. Inside were two rows of massive statues forming a passage way to the back of the temple where four statues sat with one, the god of darkness, being hidden in shadows with the other three being illuminated by sunlight. There were little wings in the temple filled with pictures of gods and offerings and slaves and kings, sometimes feasting. There were hieroglyphics on the big walls inside the main base sections and two separate rooms which looked they would have been filled with treasure at one point. It was quite impressive. Next to this temple was another temple, created for his most important wife which was similar but smaller than than the temple of Abu Simbel. 

After this journey the weather had begun to pick up and we headed to the high dam which makes the electricity for Egypt. It was massive and quite impressive. After this short stop we made our way on the coach (where brett enjoyed holding a gun) to Philae temple which was on an island so we had to catch a boat to see it. It was fun having the Nubian men transport us on wooden boats to a temple made in the honour of the God Isis who turned into a bird God to procreate with her partner who had been killed then bought back to life for a few moments to make a baby: Horus II. The temple had been converted into a Christian church do had imprints of crosses and an alter which was a bit bizarre. The temple had a sanctuary which in ancient Egypt held a maximum of two people in it. It was awesome to be able to explore this temple and I appreciated the intention and meaning behind some of the artwork.

Magical Egypt

Arrived in Luxor 36 hours ago. People on the plane ride over here were amazing. I had sinus issues from the week long cold I've had and a few people banded together to give me sinus medication and chewing gum. We were escorted to our hotel by travel talk, out tour company, and met our tour group who had all started their tour in Cairo two days before. We didn't realise we were joining a group that had already started but it didn't matter as we arrived on boxing day and had wanted to spend Christmas with Brett's brother, Sean in England. We got the boring intro and payment stuff over and done with and met a couple of our fellow tour travellers in a local 'Irish' pub. We got a shish kebab each and headed off to bed for some sleep after our 3am start!

We awoke and got onto our mini bus which drove us to Amenhotep III statues. It was pretty amazing to see as they were soo tall and so old! Next up we were off to the Valley of the Kings which I absolutely loved. I paid extra to go and see King Tutankhamen's tomb and boy was it worth it! It was the first time I had ever seen an unwrapped mummy! His head and feet were not covered by cloth and the man in the tomb gave us a lot of information (for a fee of course) and gave us his torch to shine on the body. Tut's body was in a glass, thermoregulated coffin and on the other side was his sarcophagus which he was buried in for thousands of years. Although it was the smallest tomb it was really awesome and by far the highlight of my day. The tombs were pretty awesome with hieroglyphics and paintings on the walls that were beautifully preserved through time buried beneath the earth.

We continued on for Queen Hatshepsut's temple where we saw more Egyptian statues and wall art. There was a tour of Egyptian school boys who took photos of us, the girls, and constantly stared at our boobs. 'So beautiful shakira, shakira' was a common phrase heard from school boys to grown men alike. We then made our way to Aswan on a minibus and arrived on our cruise boat on the Nile river. The place was nice and after a mix up of rooms we got settled in and chatted to some newly made friends. Dinner was served from 8-9pm which was late and we had to be up at 3am this morning so we headed to bed straight after! I am currently sitting on a bus taking us to Abu Simbel which I am quite excited about going to see!

Where were you Nessy!!??

Brett and I completed a trip to Loch Ness in the midlines of Scotland to complete some Nessy watching. We stayed at Loch Ness backpackers and went on a cruise on the Loch searching for Nessie- ok so I was searching, Brett the non believer was just taking in the amazing scenery. Basically the Loch's depth is shaped like a bath at the bottom and the edges have mountains rising either side. This means that even very close to the edge of the loch is extremely deep. The Loch is extremely murky as it contains a lot of Peet from the mountains. This makes the visibility in the lake extremely poor. Divers can't use lights underwater as the Peet particles reflect the light back making it near impossible to see anything underwater. It is much like using high beams on an extremely foggy night when the light is simply reflected back and you still can't see very far in front. There have been over a thousand recorded eye witness sitings of Nessie and our captain had a couple of photos that he had taken of her. In Scotland the locals call her the water horse, not Nessie, apparently this name was given by the media to the hype around the mysterious creature. The captain had said that  many other people have seen the water horse but haven't come forward because the media are ruthless and harass the witnesses... So maybe I did see Nessie, maybe I didn't... He said that sonar isn't sophisticated enough yet to confirm or deny the water horses existence as it can only tell you if there is something down there, not how big it is, nor the shape of it- and everyone knows there are plenty of animals living below the surface. 

Anniversary catch up blogg

So I forgot to post this back when we were in England....Brett's sister in law Zoe helped us organise a celebration for our 3 year anniversary (31-07-12) by booking a hotel room where she works and making a reservation in a well-to do restaurant. Zoe is the manager at the Royal Berkshire and she gave us one of the best rooms- a lovely big suite. Our room overlooked the 15 acres the property was set on. Brett and I went for a little stroll, had a bit of a snoop around the hotel and tried out the pool. Dinner was amazing and although Brett's main left much to be desired, we had a brilliant night. I am so lucky to have Brett in my life. He supports my dreams, wants the best for me and loves me for who I am. With only one year until our wedding I hope I make him as happy as he makes me... Well most of the time anyway :)

Get some York on your Fork

York is an amazing place full of history and wonderfully old buildings. Brett and I stayed in a youth hostel and participated in a night time walking ghost tour. It was quite interesting as the director recounted real facts and stories from times gone by and narrated eye witness accounts of spooky events that have occurred since. The last being around 18 months ago at the excavated Viking site. This morning we headed to the site and learnt about the viking people and saw some of the archeological finds from that spot in the middle of town. It was pretty surreal to be under the city in the exact spot where the artefacts were found. They have shoes from the Viking times as well combs to get live out of their hair, weapons and other cool stuff- randomly they even had some preserved human faeces; amazing I know lol. It is such an amazing city, I have fallen in love with it; quaint buildings all once contained within castle walls, some of the walls are still standing today! Amazing place! 

Hadrians wall

Brett and I are currently chilling in a guest house room after a busy few days. Last night we spent the night in a barn camp. It was created for walkers and backpackers who were on an adventure across hadrians wall. We had the bunk barn to ourselves and we were literally in the roof of a barn in bunk beds. It was cosy, cheap, quaint and served us well. Brett and I had been driving along the road searching for Hadrian's wall and had only come across a small section on our own. It was incredibly impressive, but i really wanted to see more. We followed signs to a roman fort and some extremely helpful people at the counter directed us to greencart farm which provided b&b's, backpacker and camper accommodation. This property was about a 10 minute walk from much more of hadrians wall. It was amazing. The wall was built around 122AD and was the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire. The section we saw was actually the most northern piece that still remained. It was supposed to be built around three meters wide, but in parts was only around 2, which was still bloody impressive, given how long it had survived and that it spanned around 120km. Brett and I spent around 2 hours walking along the wall, with beautiful countryside views and so close to cows we could touch them. It was the most surreal mix of old and new. There was a misty fog over the land and it was around sunset so there was crisp fresh air surrounding us. It was such an experience which really made me feel alive.

This morning we drove along some of Hadrians wall as throughout time they had actually used some of the wall to create the existing roads... This helped to explain why we couldn't always find it when we were driving around. Brett and I continued our adventure and drive to Edinburgh, Scotland. We got out to take touristy photos of the boarder as we crossed from England. We then got caught in a bit of a storm and the rain came bucketing down. Brett was great at driving through the storm and got us here safe and sound. We chilled in the room for a while, grabbed some dinner then set out on an underground ghost Tour. We saw some arches that had been buried over time and heard about how the undesirable people were put here. They were made of stones and housed between 10,000-20,000 people. Originally they were built as the substructures of the south bridge and to make money they created them into vaults to store people's goods such as whiskey. The only problem was that they leaked liquid lime into the vaults which ruined the food, drink and supplies. They then decided housing people would be a better idea... We heard about people snatchers and other awful things that happened to people. People who had the plague or women who were pregnant out of wedlock were put here. The tour was kinda lame but at least we got to see something interesting.

London- St Paul's cathedral

We spent the day in the city at st Paul's cathedral. We climbed the 571 steps to the very top. It was an extremely impressive looking building and was designed as such. Three domes were built to create the illusion of one spectacular dome. Looking up at the ceiling I was incredibly impressed by the design and the ability of the people at the time to build such a structure without modern technology.

London hop on and off

As a tourist I had felt the desperate need to go onto one of those hop on and off bus tours that travels throughout London. It was actually a really great way to learn about some of the history of the famous London landmarks and buildings. For instance at one stage their had been window tax where you had to pay money depending upon how many windows you had. People therefore plastered over their windows and the term daylight robbery was born. It was brilliant in terms of education and site-seeing. We hopped off and saw Buckingham palace which was amazing and I got a photo with the clock tower which holds big Ben. We had a cruise along the river Thames and were guided by a cheeky Pom who many a passing jokes at the local politicians. We saw the globe theatre on this cruise which is where Shakespeare's plays were, and still are performed. I finally felt like I was in London although it was all a bit surreal. Being a tourist is actually quite exhausting as see you see all new sites and learn about people, buildings and places and all your senses work on overdrive trying to take in as much as possible. Brett and I were absolutely stuffed when we returned back to Sean and  Zoe's. It was such a good thing that Sean is an amazing chef as we arrived home to a cooked dinner and collapsed on the couch.

London town

A drive and a DLR (docklands light rail) into the city and  Brett and I arrived into london and were starring at tower bridge. It is an amazing bridge. Brett and I had kind of arrived at tower bridge and had absolutely no idea what bridge we were looking at- Brett had even thought it was London bridge. We were those kind of tourists... Whilst admiring the bridge and contemplating whether to climb up it or not, a little something on my left had caught my eye and I was fairly entranced. It was a castle with people walking on the balconies and terraces. I desperately wanted to be one of those people... It was the first castle I had ever seen and like a mouse to cheese, I was quickly drawn in. It was the tower of London and it was unbelievably impressive. We walked around and apart me was overwhelmed at the thought of being in a castle let alone wondering through it! We learnt an awful lot about the history of the building and I was interested to know that william the conqueror had built one section, the white tower, in 1078. Throughout its time the castle had been used as a prison, an execution site, a menagerie, an armoury, a mint and currently houses the crown jewels, which we were able to see. We visited the 'dungeon' and saw the old equipment used for torture and saw a site set up near the place where people such as Anne boleyn were executed. I thought the whole thing was absolutely wonderful. Such a surreal day but it was exactly what I had been dreaming about when planning our Europe trip.

I made it to Great Britain!!!

After an uncomfortable flight, Brett and i flew into London heathrow airport tired and I was a bit emotional. Reality is often a complete disappointment when you build it up in your head and boy had i built up magical london! A few awfully mean ladies on the plane behind us for 14 hours and a mix up of times and dates saw us organising a national express and heading for bretts brother Sean and his wife Zoe's house. I was surprised and emotional as we were driven out of london and to a village named Great Dunmow. It wasnt quite what i had been expecting given i had thought we were staying in london and i suddenly realised that i had not been on the same page as brett when were discussing travel plans. I would have eagerly spent the afternoon walking around London but Brett was all about the shower and chillax at Sean's place. Understandably Brett was interested in catching up with family but it wasn't until we were on the bus that I realised how different our plans were. It was all ok though, everything was just worse because I was beyond tired and Brett and I were able to compromise with our plans- oh and he also gave  me lots of cuddles. We arrived to a quiet house and Zoe's sister met us at the house and let us in. Sean and Zoe were lovely and although  I was struggling with a bit of jet lag I managed to cope with it ok- Brett would wake me every 30-45 minutes in the arvo to ensure I slept at night. The following day we had a walk down Main Street and although we had not been in the country long, let alone the village, I began to feel a bit chrostrophobic and I was unbelievably desperate to head into the city of London. Travel was expensive and were about 40 minutes from north London. Brett was very understanding and suggested hiring a car so we could have some freedom and get around. We did just that and finally I was able to head into the city and sink my teeth into the elusive London town....

Oasis

 A secret oasis awaited us...


I experienced a wonderful day on the back of a moped with Brett as we explored the island of Phuket. We rode past temples and monuments and navigated our way through the streets and soon became a custom to the Thai roadrules; riding through red lights and tight gaps when it was safe to do so. We rode to the Bangpae cascade waterfalls and trekked through the rocky trails to see the main waterfall. We took some photos then continued on further slightly off the beaten path.

It was rocky, steep and slippery in places so the majority of people stopped by the first fall and didn't venture further. We continued trekking and boy did it pay off as we found a hidden oasis! It was simply breathtaking. Lush jungle trees, rocks and waterfalls in our own secluded paradise! Brett and I immersed ourselves in the fresh water and i was overcome with the beauty of the place... well for about a minute then I had a miniature panic attack; what if i got bitten by a poisonous spider or bitten by a venemous snake out here where no knew we were... what if there were leeches or water bugs or mosquites with malaria? I had seen some crabs and what if one of them bit me, I'd have a blood wound and could catch a blood born disease! It was the most presitine place I had even been and i was stuck in a panic. Brett was trying to calm me and wanted to venture on, but I wouldn't let him leave my site... everyone knows in horror movies that's when things go wrong!! He stayed and i calmed down somewhat when he reassured me I was OK. I tried to put my rational/irrational thoughts behind and just enjoy the space we had for a while. After being in the water a little while and not being bitten or attacked or stung I really did start to relax. It was a tropical paradise and i was in heaven (the kind of heaven where you have to be cautious of dangerous things). We took some photos and relaxed then trekked on further to enjoy more of the surrounding environment. We came across a bunch of spiders and I had reached my limit, I was ready to trek back down and go back to the first waterfall. My body was on high alert but my mind wanted to just enjoy the place for what it was. I felt very lucky to be able to experience half the day in such a wonderful place. We hopped back on the bike and ventured into phuket town and went to a local market selling so many foreign and exotic foods. There were so many different smells it was overpowering. Brett and I bought a cup of steamed corn each as this was the only food that seemed relatively safe and we already having enough toilet problems! We also bought a fake engagement ring so that I could wear it on our tours through Europe without the need to worry about theives and the like. We then set our sights on Patong and had dinner at a table on the beach at a place called Sabai beach restaurant. It was wonderful. We watched tourists light lanterns on the beach and watched fireworks going off on the coastline. We walked along the beach then explored some of the Thai markets. It was such a wonderful day. Brett and i began to tire and bickered a little so headed for home, and got completely lost. It was the perfectly true end to a wonderful day. Nothing can ever be too perfect, we just needed to shake a bit of reality into one another!!

Happily Ever

One sprinkling of a cruise, a shot of a gun and two handfuls of loving = A tropical wedding! Two days ago Mel, the hen, and her chickens awoke early after some beauty sleep for a fun loving day on a river cruise. We kissed our beau's and left them to their day of go-karting, eating, drinking, games of pool and a hell of a tuk-tuk ridehome!


After travelling across the island in a minivan the girls were ready to enjoy the sparkling waters that Thailand is renown for. We set off on a lovely boat, licenced for 10 guests but carrying 14... we were in for the quite the day! The driver Gordon, whom we nicknamed captain, set off and took us through the light blue shimmery waters to an authentic fish market in the middle of the bay. It was quite the site; composed of two planks of wood nailed together next to each other, with these then nailed together in a grid like fashion it was like nothing i had ever seen, each square in the grid had fish nets holding the fish in. There was an array of seafood from fish, crabs, and lobsters to tropical fish for aquariums and sharks, it was quite the site! We were able to look around at the fisherman's home in the middle of the ocean and gained a little glimmer into the lives of a Thai fisherman. A basic way of living however captain did highlight that the fisherman was not struggling financially as his fish are sold off all over the island to resorts and markets and that he makes quite a decent living with one particular fish going for 20,000 baht ($800 approx) not too long ago. With two lobsters purchased and authentically cooked we hit the waters again and made our way down to the river. The river and fish markets had all been destroyed during the tsunami which killed around 10,000 Thai people. We reflected briefly as we were told about the new infrastructure around us, which had been lost.
Cruising down the river, the captain blew his whistle and within minutes we were looking at cute little monkey's in the trees. A few moments later and whilst I had turned to grab some bananas to feed them, the monkeys boarded the boat. I turned around and nearly leaped out of my skin as two monkey's were sitting next to me reaching over for the food. The other chickens from the hens day had already made their strategic jump backwards and out of the monkey's way and were well into laughing about it. I think i was still in shock and also thinking in my head 'please don't bite me, i don't want rabbis'! I laugh at how my mind works sometimes!! Before long several more had boarded and we were caught up in the mayhem of it all! Monkeys eating everything and even sipping some beer! Craziness! We then set off for some more cruising and the monkey's got off the boat and swam back to their families. The mother of the bride and i hit the kayak's and headed to land for more booze for the group of chicken's. Once back on board we continued cruising until deep water then jumped in ourselves for a bit of a swim. It was honestly a picture perfect moment. We boarded the boat and set off for our own patch of deserted island. We chatted and chilled in the water then came aboard for a smorgase board of food, seafood and Thai curries galore, it was amazing! As we were finishing up the food, the weather took a turn for the worse! 14 chilled out chicken's on a hens day turned into quite the site! Drown rats would be an understatement. We were soaked through with the rain coming in sideways! We ended up cutting the trip home short and i was thankful to be on dry land; the last 20 minutes on the boat seemed like hours!! Back on dry land we were safe and could finally laugh about being soaked! Before we got picked up Helen, Mel's mum, made a special attachment with a dog named bobby, who wanted to love her whole body sick! It was hilarious! After we got back from the hens day and bucks night, Brett and i piked on everyone and went to bed without dinner. I had a case of the good old 'chocked up tummy' and he had the opposite. Feeling worse for wear we slept it off which turned out to be a good thing as the day of the wedding was a busy one indeed!!

My Brett and i joined the boys and Sam, Brett's niece, and headed off to the shooting range in the morning before the wedding. I used a shot gun which just about threw me backwards a little bit. It was heavy and the blow to the shoulder a little unexpected. It was a rush of adrenaline that's for sure! The boys did an amazing job in terms if their accuracy. The first bloke to use the shot gun in the group was named Andy. He scared all of us with the massive bang! Only he was wearing 'protective' headphones and the rest of us were left jumping out of our skins with the massive blast. It was crazy. None of the guns were chained down or anything, it was a crazy free for all and i simply hoped that the other guests at the range had sane mental health and didn't turn around and go crazy!! We made it out alive and the groom Brett made it back in plenty of time for the big day.

The setting was perfect. Blue skies, crashing waves against the sand and a beautiful wedding marquee. It was so bella! Both groom and bride looked stunning and all the girls wept during the vows. It was magical. We all had photos with the baby wedding elephant and chatted and mingled until sunset when we made our way inside as it was starting to rain. Dinner was a beautiful seafood and Thai food buffet. Speeches were short and sweet and the night was just lovely. We were going to light lanterns but the winds were too intense so we ended the night at catch club which is attached to the resort the bride and groom were staying at and we had a little boogy at the 'disco tech'. The father of the bride boogied far to hard and ended the night with a foot broken in three places! What a night, and what a place! Brett and i ducked off a little early due to a case of tummy upset, which I'm sure who ever is reading this can imagine not being a comfortable experience. Poor Rachael, one of Mel's good friend's, missed the reception because of a bad tummy! It can't be helped in a place like this but boy does it mess you about a bit. I was the opposite of her though and couldn't go if you paid me so was in pure agony! I went back to the hotel and curled up in a ball and went to bed!

A lovely little inn, a night out and the mayhem that is thailand!

Welcome to my first blogg! I'm not really sure what a blogg is all about but i hope to share on this some of the craziness, happiness and adventure that is travel. I don't plan to hold back or pretend to be someone i'm not so take me or leave me for who i am and what i have experienced on my trip.

Brett and i arrived into Thailand two nights ago after an uncomfortable flight and 21 hour day. We survived, and after a nice big sleep we awoke refreshed and ready to explore the town of surin bay. We are staying at surin bay inn, a lovely little place with a laughable view! We met up with our friends mel and brett, who are to be married in two days and swam in their pool. We also met their awesome and wacky friend rachael! In the evening we went to patong and explored the insaness of bangla road!! we met up with more friends, mel and andy and went to enjoy a few cheeky beverages! Chilling at a bar, the intense smell of sewerage and incense sparked a flood of memories from last time i was here; a young, silly uni student drinking myself silly and not really appreciating thailand for anything except a party kingdom. Whilst at this bar, we got roped into playing connect 4 and poor brett and mel were the last one's to have a game so were sneakly sucked into a game of 'you win, we buy you a drink, we win, you buy us a drink'. Naturally the clever, sneaky thai women won and the group was 400 baht down (approx $13). We walked about looking for a karaoke bar to no avail, but did trek through dirty flood waters on a mission to sing! As the night progressed, and taking photos of random animals or ladyboys began to cost, we were soon apart of the pulsing western veins that ran through this thai street. Shining things, glowing things, flashing things and rude things were all offered to us. We sunk our morals and after drink after drink we eventually hit the infamous ping pong show... down a dirty lane and into a bar with girls displaying crazy little shows including eating candle wax and even laying an egg at one point, the reality of the sillyness of it all hit and we left feeling a little poorer in money and integrity. On the journey home we did a typical ozzie maccas run and the girls bellowed out the aladdin song "a whole new world" to the boys dismay! Oh we definately were crazy silly tourists in the craziest part of town!