Posts Tagged ‘Boat’

1 Comment

Umpa Lumpa, Dooba Dee Doop


2010
06.09

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

Well im pretty sure this is one of the first times we´ve done a second blog post from the same place! Yup… still in Copacabana, tonight will be our fifth night in the hotel but to be fair we are leaving tomorrow to get on with actually travelling and stuff (well to be fair, mostly to ensure we can watch the england match on saturday) so whoop a nine hour bus awaits… good job we picked up a packed lunch from the restaurant tonight :)

So what have we been up to?? well sunday didnt even seem to exist because between us i managed to get out of bed for a couple of hours shopping and tea in the evening but apart from that i mostly felt like i could just chunder everywhere… and as for toby, when he wasnt in bed, he was chundering everywhere! well not everywhere. thankfully we have our own bathroom.  Sadly it seems suspiciously like our fav restaurant from the night before may have given us a lil bit of food poisoning ,… whooop. But we are consideraby better now. We did watch 17 again though in the evening on our own tv… yayyy and obvs bought choccy to go with it.

The next day we didnt wanna do anything too strenous so mostly just chilled, and at some point managed to hire a rowing boat with the most ridiculous oars ever, planks of wood nailed to longer, thinner planks of wood, for two hours. We went out a bit but then spent at least an hour just floating with our music and books working hard on the tan. (toby would like me to point out that he also climbed a hill on this day… i looked at the photos so that as good as counts…) Got back and realised we didnt realli have too much money left and luckily for us the bank was shut for the occasion of it being a monday. SO we couldnt pay for the hostel but just about got away with it. Booked our boat out to the isla del sol, apparently its like this mystical place where the incas came from but to be fair, weñ´ve lost the guide book and we couldnt really read the spanish signs so it could have been anything. After a very uncomfy two hour boat ride, we arrived on the north side of the island and bought two BEASTY sandwiched for 60p each and set off on our epic 4 hours long trek to reach the other side of the island  and the boat to pick us up.

After about an hour we came to some inca ruins, apparently an old temple or summit. We are now slightly worried for macchu picchu just for the fact that it might turn into one big mock fest. For instance over the course of our 10 minute look we came to the conclusion that the incas were in fact actually umpa lumpas (even toby couldnt fit through their archways) and that they had built loads of tunnels for carrying willy wonkas chocolate to the chocolate worshipping table just around the corner. Tres mature.

On a more cultural note,  today we discovered that the incas were actually pretty recent, like the 1400´s so technically we had the minster and they had something less complex than stonehenge. Im sorry if that sounds like a burn. The walk was long and uphill and realli hot and sunny (toby describes it as very nice) and to be fair there were some funky snow covered mountains you could see and the lake was realli clear blue (although way too freezing to go swimming in) I just realized this morning that i look like an idiot because i burned my legs just on the bottom bits on the back from my cropped trousers from this walk and now look rather silly.

Anyways, random people kept asking us for money, not in a begging way but in a , yes 50p to walk through my village kinda way. Well you can imagine how much we liked that…. i didnt  even wanna walk through their village. If only we knew more spanish we could have argued a lot better. but all i could say to the third woman when she asked, was why??? for the ruins she replied. Well im not being funny, but the only ruins i saw were the shambles of the village. ..not to be harsh or anything.

After an atrocious cheese sandwich and hairy portion of chips from a restaurant that wasnt even in the sun, we were off to the islas flotantes.

The floating islands for a few planks of wood together, making room for a table and chairs… yes, some may call it a dock, but not the bolivians.  the driver of the boat was like, who would like to get off and have a closerlook….

No-one was the answer. and it was a full boat.  but that could have been because when i tapped toby on the shoulders, he looked around a nd said really loudly… awww we´re at the  &$%&  floating  islands ….

anyways got back in time to go to the bank and were no longer poor, although this was shortlived as we had to go back again the day after. Went for a nice meal for 3 pounds each (warm bread and butter, salad buffet, soup, beef in tomato sauce with rice and potato and more veg, and chocoalte cake, and a jug of lemonade… was immense!!)

we then treated ourselves to some alcohol (1 pound 50 for a massive bottle of vodka, but im so hardcore i managed about 3 glasses then fell asleep at the grand old time of 8:30pm. Will try harder next time.

Today we didnt do much … for a change… more lie ins, more sun, more shopping, more smoothies which i spilt all over before we had even started so they didnt end up being such a good deal. ANnnnnndd thats about it.

Cusco manaña whoop!¡ xxxx

4 comments

Want Clean Clothes…


2010
05.21

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Travel | 4 Comments »

Hola :) that is my basic Spanish phrase yes, but I have improved slightly and can ask for things and costs so can survive. Some phrases are still a little out of reach of both of us though. Yesterday we went to a landeratte to have Everything washed (for the first time in SA…) and it wasn´t self service. You had to ask what you wanted so Polly pointed at our clothes and said ´Want clean clothes´ (In Espanol obvs) The woman managed to work out what she was saying so I am sitting here in lovely clean smelling clothes :)

Our couple of days in BA was very nice. The bus ride was basically a chauffered limo due to the fact we were the only passengers sitting upstairs! There were a few people downstairs, but in total about 5 people on the bus including the driver! Got a taxi to the hotel door for about the correct price. Taxi drivers have lots of ways to make fares more than they should be. We chaecked at tourist info how much it should be and Polly basically told the driver that the fare should be about 25 Pesos. Our hostel was amazing. The guidebook rates it as one of the best in Latin America and it was voted in the top ten worldwide by hostelworld.com. The staff were really great and when we arrived at around 9 they said the beds wouldn´t be ready until 11 but we could head up to the rooftop terrace for breakfast :) Better brekkie than at most hostels, with pasties and oranges so you could make fresh orange juice. The views over the city were also pretty good, although I never remember to take my camera up and get any photos :( We met a Canadian couple while having breakfast who had arrived the night before and we ended up going together to some area of the city (I can´t remember which sector) It had this huge metal flower thing though, that rotated to follow the sun and opened and shut when it was day or night. Was quite cool. Also the huge cemetry place which we wandered round for quite a while and got lost as we refused to pay 1 pound for a map! They bury people above ground here and build houses to put the coffins in. Was a bit creepy seeing lots of coffins (the houses have windows) but some were very decorative. Some over the statues of the people were a bit ridiculus – see the picture of the guy in a dressing gown! Evita was also burried there, although I have no idea who she was, apparently quite a famous singer and she had lots of fresh flowers…

Was quite a long wander to the cemetry and to get back we went via the posh area with its very expensive shops and door men on the hotels everywhere. Our hostel was very central though which was helpful to get to the sights everywhere. In the evening we cooked ourselves as the hostel bbq was slightly overpriced at about 15 pounds!! We watched a film on the huge tv about a women who went out with the nanny who was 15 years younger. Was quite good but I have no idea what it was called. The next morning we were meant to be up early, but didn´t. Polly has been feeling a bit rough recently so needs a lot of sleep. She is in bed atm.. We went out to La Boca in the afternoon via the very bumpy bus! Its a big tourist place with lots of colourful house :) and grafitti art. Polly finally bought a purse as she hasn´t had one since Cambodia, so now she can look after her own money! We saw the football stadium as well, although the football season has finished now so not many games on. Managed to resist the very touristy restraunts in La Boca and ate a huge pizza back in the centre for a very cheap price as it was a localy place.

In the evening we went out to a tango show and dinner :) We had a one hour tango lesson before the show so we are no both experts in the Tango!! The meal was very nice and filling. Due to it being 4 courses! Was definately the poshest place we have eaten in on our travels. The show was great fun, although the singer was a bit dodgy. The costumes were awesome and the band were really good. Got to dance with dancers to show off our skills! The next morning we left to catch a boat to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay! The country that we weren’t expecting to visit. No-one guessed it so no prizes, sorry. We arrived in the afternoon and had a wander around the town. It’s very nice and lovely to have a break from big cities. We cooked an impressive rice dish with peas, sweetcorn, carrot and beef. And had a make shift game of monopoly last night. There wasn’t a dice so we used cards instead as the numbers. And chess pieces as our characters. Polly said that Sarah would be impressed with our commitment to the game! Polly narrowly won.. but it was close.

Today we used the hostels free (and very rickety) bikes to ride around the old town, most of it which is cobelled so was quite a bumpy ride! I managed to buy us grapefruit juice, the only one that Polly doesn´t like, to have with our mamoth burgers at lunch, then we ditched the bikes to go wander around the craft market and some other shops. Came back quite early so we could have a lie down. I´ve just finished another book so have come to write this. Going to have to go and find something to cook for tea tonight. There are no big supermarkets and the choice at the smaller ones is very limited :s Then later we are going to a jazz bar as there is live music tonight :) Hopefully we will have the energy! Getting a bus to Montevideo tomorrow then going to have a 36 hour epic all the way back up to Salta! Anyway some Spanish person is starting to talk to me and Polly is asleep so I have no idea what they are saying!! Ahhh going to run away byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

1 Comment

Good-bye to the campervan..


2010
05.09

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

Soooo the sailing trip. Glad we didnt pay like a million pounds almost for a 2 night trip in australia as it was only like 45 for a full day ( i know! still a lot) but the other option was doing not much in a sleepy town on a cloudy day and plus we had spent a lot of hours driving to the place so felt we had to do something. it was just 6 of us on this guys boat and it was one of the last trips of the year before he sailed off to fiji or whichever exotic island he chooses to go to each summer (lucky bum)… so we got to help out with the actual sailing part, pulling some ropes and the sail, and steering to boat which was actually quite big and not that easy to keep in a straight line. Floated along for a couple of hours trying mostly successfully to avoid the rainclouds and aiming for the blue sky patches and then we ran into a load of dolphins yayyyyyyy and even though toby had mocked my wanting to go on  a dolphin trip he was well excited. They were pretty big arse dolphins as well and they were very jumpy and darting through the water, apparently because it was mating season. good times.

Shortly after we stopped on this island thingy and had a mooch up to a lookout point while the captain made us lunch which was…… a ham and cheese sandwich. A very tasty one at that so good times, except for the fact that when we arrived in new zealand we bought a chunk of ham and a lump of cheese and it had lastest us pretty much all of our campervan travels.

Back on the boat, where, after lunch we got made some funky shell jewelry then sailed back getting in around 4 where we decided we WOULD make a nice tea for a change instead being lazy and geting fish and chips or resorting to microwave meals so we bought some chicken schnitzel whatever that is and made a yummy sauce with pepper and rice. mmm, then another early night as we are too cool and also there doesnt seem to be much happening in the new zealand nightlife department.

The last proper day in nz involved more long driving (about 5 hours) because the maps are sooo deceptive it feels like a lot longer because journeys are at least an hour or two hour longer than expected. but we finally made it into auckland city centre and had to pay full on city centre parking prices! and to be fair theres not a whole lot there… the sky tower thing, but they had decided to light it in mouldy green once it got dark for some reason… we basically justgrabbed some food and had a bit of a wander round then drove off again to find a camppsite, where we got lost walking on the way to the supermarket, and then realized we didnt have any id so toby would have to drive back to pick up some beer anyway.  But we ended up not eating tooo late, inside our campervan as their were no tables at the campsite and also because it was cool and that was about it… the next nmorning we dropped off the van after having a good sort through and having lost a few things in a magical hole and then it was off to the airport….

5 comments

“I got my swim trunks… and my flippy floppies” …


2010
03.10

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel | 5 Comments »

Ok, so I promise this post wont be as long as the last one… at least im pretty sure. Last few days have been busy busy so today was saved for a bit of lard-arsing at the beach, even though it was the first time there has been no sunshine since we started travelling.

So in Hue, we did manage to make it out of the hotel pool at least for a little while admittedly not too too long. In fact, the day after our boat trip we had another 8am start— by choice (!) to go look at this citadel thing, which i think is where the emporers of vietnam used to live until they were abolished in the 1950′s. Quite glad we didn’t do an organised tour/ day trip as we walked there ourselves took about 45 minutes and then saw everything we wanted to see (which didn’t seem to be much) in about an hour. Maybe we just aren’t good enough at cultural stuff but to be fair… im sure it would have been good when there were kings (who looked about 8 in the photos and had seriously massive beds!) actually there, but now its quite run down and they are doing lots of construction. SO, we were back to the hotel for 10 giving us plenty of pool time before our 12 oclock check out :)

IN hue we found this awesome little street restuarant thing and we had two meals there both of which cost 84,000 (which is about 2 pounds 80– between us) and that was a full-on meal, plus DELICIOUS fruit shakes.. in fact i think they entered our top 3! toby had dragon fruit but tried to steal my orange and lemon when it first came. The next time, i tried a different one and he went for the orange and lemon and it was no where near as tasty! SHAKE ENVY TIMES :D

We got on our sleeper bus (see picks) very weird, bus with loads of tiny bunk beds :) but quite comfy overnight heading for Nha Trang… quite a nice, hassle free journey really, arriving right on time… at 6am :S lil inconvenient but all the hotel people seemed to be awake and wanting to persuade us to stay, and we had found somewhere within a few minutes… 3 hour nap and we were good to go.

The weather was WELL sunny, we had music, and books, and snacks, BEACH TIMES! you could rent sunbeds under little straw hut things for a dollar each (had to be done) and, erm, that was about it for that day really :P The water was actually warm which was VERY nicee.

That night we stumbled upon a bar with happy hour going on which seems to last basically 10am-11pm here, and you could get double vodkas for 50p and these amazzzzzzing alcoholic bucket things for a quid which were pineapple-y and therefore very yummy. It was our first kind of ‘night out’ for… since we got here actually (sorry we are pathetically un-hardcore :S) and maybe it wasn’t the best idea to book a 1o hour sleeper bus to saigon on the way back to the hotel :S hehe—- it’ll be fineeeee, we’ve checked the tickets and at least they are for today (the right day :) )

Wasn’t feeling too too brilliant when we awoke at 8am (!) to get picked up for our party cruise thing we had booked the day before, but felt a lot better by the time we boarded the boat… whoop whoop. It was called the 4 islands trip, although we didnt really see much of the island, i think it was a bit of an excuse for a swim, some music and a lil bit of drinking. No complaints from us :) although we stayed on the 7up. First stop was the ngu ngu (not really called that but everything here sounds vaguely like it ) aquarium– see pics, not very big but some very funky fish and a very tall tower thing to climb up with not a very good view. Back on the boat– next island— snorkelling and looking at the coral reel thing i think i even managed about 3 breathes under water~! yayyy not bad for a first timer.

I think it was lunch next, which was worringly similar to our past boat trip lunch yellow noodles and weirdy fried stuff with a bit of chicken. AND bananas :D :D which taste sooo much better here! then it was entertainment time. There was a crazy guitar guy, a drummer, bassist, and an old man wearing a coconut bra with a tambourine, and our crazy tour guide dude- the lead singer :S they appeared from basically nowhere and assured us we would see them soon on M.T.V… maybbbbeeee not, but they were VERY entertaining. WE almost got roped into karaoke, as he went round the boat asking for different nationalities so he could murder, in turn, a song from each country :) luckily Tobys ”we’re from canada” a country that had already gone got us off the hook, although i dont think they were very convinced :P

It had been quite cloudy in the morning but by the afternoon all the clouds cleared and by the time we were ready for the floating bar it was SUN allllll the way. The floating bar was basically tambourine guy sat on a platform thing while we all floated in our rubber rings towards him for free drinks :) which were yucky :( and too rum-y for my liking. And the playlist was immense. Basically like BPM only better. it was awesome.

WE then floated off to the last island, to relax and catch some rays on a private beach with ice-creams — its a very hard life– before getting on the boat for lots of free fruit then back to the harbour where we got dropped off at our respective hotels.. IN total the day cost about 6 quid… not bad at all !

Last night was my second pizza in a row which totally didnt live up to the first night which was yummy yummy. Toby had pasta (suprise suprise) but still has not found anywhere which lives up to toby standards (suprise suprise) or tobys portions (impossible). Im sure he will keep trying.

Today has been fairly (make that very) lazy. We started off on a walk to these tower things which are supposedly quite impressive, but gave up when we realised the guidebook map ran out pre-maturely and we ended up in a locals market. Good times. Good excuse for some brekkie (beans on toast -yayyyyy) and pool. I beat toby both games :D :D what can i say? i reckon thaty brings the running total to 4-1. BURN>.

And tonight we are off to SAIGON / HO CHI MINH city. another 6am arrival. WHOOP!

Toby would write… but shocker he is hungry :P so cba :)

catch yaz later!

xxx