Ewan & Anna's World Tour

2003-07-10T19:47:00.000Z

2003-07-10T19:46:00.002Z

2003-07-10T19:46:00.001Z

2003-07-10T19:46:00.000Z

2002-09-04T14:53:00.000Z

Four months ago we left London and headed East for India. We spent the following 123 days on 15 planes, 19 long distance trains, got to grips with 7 subway systems, hundreds of busses, trams, taxis, auto rickshaws, tuk tuks, cycle rickshaws, cars, helicopters, bikes and of course our own 4 feet to travel roughly 35000 miles. So what have we learned? Well, for one, the world is round, and two, gravity is real cos we stayed stuck to the ground even in Australia.

We’ve been to 10 provinces, and 20 states in 11 countries, 54 towns cities and villages, stayed in 44 hostels, guest houses, cabins, and hotels and packed our bags 48 times. I suppose I shouldn’t to bore you with stats. It’ll be much more torturous to bore you with pictures. We've taken 36 rolls of 36exposure film. That’s about 1200 pictures for all our friends to enjoy! I'll bet you all can't wait.

So on Sunday we arrived from the west and found ourselves back where we started. So it really was a world tour.

The reason that this blog was created was so that family and friends could keep track of where we were, and how we were getting on. But it turned into a detailed journal of our trip. We're really glad we started it, because we’ve now got a record of lots of the stuff we did, and how we felt about that stuff at the time. We have my Dad to thank for that since it was he who talked me into it before we left.

For us, it’s amazing to read through all the archives, and relive so many great memories, as well as reading about things we’ve completely forgotten about. And we’re glad that our friends and family have been able to experience a lot of the things we did by just checking the website. I hope you've all enjoyed it.

From start to finish it’s 23,000 words long, so if you’re planning to read it all, I would go and get yourself a cup of tea.

We hope that the blog inspires others to travel. Not necessarily on a round the world trip, but just get out and see new places and different cultures.

We’ve loved it, and can’t wait until we can get away again. Although looking at the bank statements I don’t think that’ll be for a while!

So for the last time,
on this trip anyway,

bye bye !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ewan

2002-08-31T16:41:00.000Z

Hello there,

Well we did make it to the Broadway show; we went to see Aida which was very good. So good infact Anna bought the CD. On Wednesday we took the train to Niagra (Ontario) and left the United States for Canada. We went through customs and pasport control on the train which was a unique experience. They stop just before the border to check your documents and interrogate you while still sitting in your seat. Even a sniffer dog came on board to sniff out our bags. Then you travel over the bridge into Canada, and the Canadian officials come on board and you do it all again. Quite good that you get to sit down for the whole thing, but it took about hour and a half! We got to the hostel at about 6, and then took the bus up to see the falls themselves. They're pretty impressive, although the area around the falls is very comercialised, the falls are even lit up in multicoloured lights at night.

The next day we did the famous Maid of the Mist tour on the boat at the base of the falls - we didn't realise how wet we would get, but we got pretty close. Then we went on the journey behind the falls, where you go down onto a platform at the side and get to go along a tunnel behind the falls and look out. Not that you can see anything from behind the falls apart from water, but I suppose it's good to say we've done it. Then we went up the Minolta tower and had lunch with a good view of the falls, and finished our day with a game of mini golf at Dinoland! - yeh it really is that commercialised!

In the evening we headed up to Toronto on the bus and found our way to our hotel (yes a hotel!) We decide to treat ourselves for our last 2 nights, although it's still cheaper than staying in a hostel in New York. Yesterday we went up the C.N. Tower, the worlds highest freestanding building. Anna is a bit fed up of going up towers, but I managed to persuade her to go up to the skypod (the worlds highest observation deck - and believe me, its VERY high! They've also got a glass floor which Anna refused to walk on - well apart from standing on it for 2 seconds while I held on to her incase it broke! After that we went on a little boat tour around the harbour and islands here (the last boat ride on the trip Aaaawww, and then Anna did a bit of last minute shopping.

We've just packed our bags for the last time and will get our bus to the airport in just over an hour. That means that there'll only be one more blog. Sob Sob Sob.....!!!

So until London, bye bye.

2002-08-29T14:26:00.000Z

Home Base Calling again - We're now back from Atlanta with some more of the photos from Atlanta (as promised)

Firstly (as I see Ewan mentions this in his text) - it's the photo of him trying to hail a taxi in a
thunderstorm after the Braves game - (his drenching was in vain - we phoned for one!)

All of us in front of the “world’s largest relief rock carving” in Stone Mountain Park commemorating
the Confederate side of the Civil War in Georgia.

Ewan at the top of Stone Mountain

Neill and Anna at Crossroads “Village” at Stone Mountain Park

The Train “hold up”

The four of us with Chase and Steve - our kind and generous friends and hosts in Atlanta

All of us (this time including Eilidh) at “Jaliscos” (this is the Mexican restaurant where Ewan,
Chase and Steve made a pilgrimage each week when Ewan two years ago did a summer stint
as an 'intern' at the CNN weather department in Atlanta) -
This photo was just before they boarded the train to Washington!

So here ends the “Home Base” input from Atlanta. After Ewan left for Washington,
Neill and myself went off to the coast to Savannah + Tybee island Beach for a few days,
before flying back to Edinburgh on Tuesday (27th Aug).

It has been a truly memorable visit and we really enjoyed being part of the “tour’ for a while.
Huge thanks to Chase and Steve for making it all possible.

The most unforgettable part was the reaction when the “bloggers” unexpectedly found us here!

Cheers

Andrew and Neill McLeman

P.S. Anna we (too) forgot to pick up your sunspecs, but Chase is posting them on!

2002-08-27T00:18:00.000Z

Hello there everyone!

Feel like I haven't talked to you all for ages, we've been very, very busy here in the states so it doesn't leave much time for blogging!

Since we left you, we've been to Washington, and you'll never guess what, our train was only 30 minutes late! We were both very surprised I can tell you that. Didnt' want to leave atlanta cause it was all so homey, I especially didn't want to leave little eilidh, she is such a wee cutie and I was having so much fun playing with her, I could have stayed another week! I think Ewan and I both felt a bit more homesick when we arrived in Washington, especially since the place we were staying in turned out to be a bit of a dive. But we were only there at night so it wasn't too bad. We were a bit dissapointed by how many things we couldn't do because of increased security. We had obviously wanted to tour the white house and do a tour of the FBI centre, but both tours had been cancelled unless you went through your congressman (which we obviously don't have - I think there just doing it now for US citizens). And, of course, the Pentagon tours were all off. But we had a really good time, even with all that stuff canceled, there was loads to do. We got to see the white house from the outside, which was dead strange. It's such a pictured building it looks odd to see it in real life!

We queued up early the next day to get tickets to the tours of the Capitol building. The tickets are free, but since 9/11 they're limiting numbers big time, so the tickets go before 9am. It was a really interesting tour, there seems to be so much more history in washington than anywhere else we'd been and loads of it is in this building. However, the most important thing I learned was who invented air conditioning, I've been blessing him for practically the whole trip whenever we've entered a freezing building from the outdoor heat, and now I know his name, so everybody - god bless John Gorrie of Florida!!

We also went to the international spy museum, which was interesting but overpriced. Then we went to one of the presidential memorials, Thomas Jeffersons'. It was really nice because they have this big statue of him in a building that has a direct view of the White House, apparently whoever was president at the time the memorial was built (they did tell us but I've forgotten) knocked down some trees that were in the way so the statue would have that view.

I think the most interesting bit of the day though, was our trip to Arlington Cemetery, just outside Washington, in Virginia. It's the most beautiful place and just massive. Only people who have worked in the military, or have died an American Hero can be buried there. It's got a really interesting history, because the grounds were selected for use as a cemetery for union soldiers, to spite the previous owner of the estate - Robert Lee - as he had gone to fight with the Confederate Army, and I think he might even have been there leader, but don't quote me on that. Arlington house is lovely and has a view right over washington. One of the places we looked at was JFK's grave. He's buried beside Jackie Kennedy and two of there still born babies. It's a lovely site and there's an eternal flame beside it. The other place we stopped to see was the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was really quite moving as there is a tomb with an unkown in it that is guarded 24 hours a day by the military. Every half hour they change the guard very ceremonially. It was very impressive and precise.

We were doing a tour thing on our first day, so went to union station to meet our bus. The bus couldn't get in as there was a demonstration going on by some Nazi thugs. It was quite scary as there were a few hundred people walking down the street with swastika flags and everything. We saw a few clashes with police, but it seemed pretty peaceful. After that we went to the Holocaust museum which was really well done. It really did get to you as they went through the whole events leading up to the holocaust as well as the holocaust itself and afterwards, so it took us a good few hours to go round, it was especially haunting having just watched a rally of neo-nazis.

We also went to the Abraham Lincoln memorial (you know the scene from Forrest Gump where Forrests doing a speech and Jenny runs through the pool of water in front of the stage - it's there!), as well as the Korean and Vietnam war memorials. After that it was back to the station (witnessing the arrest of an ice cream seller on the way - don't know what he'd done, selling illegal ice cream?), and even more surprises, we were actually on our train 10 minutes before it was due to leave! We just couldn't get over it! We arrived in New York, New York (as the train announcer says) late that night so were pretty tired.

We're both really enjoying New York, it's well and truly taken our minds off of homesickness! Yesterday we did a bit of shopping and then went over to Statten Island on the ferry. It was really nice as you go past the Statue of Liberty adn you get an amazing view of the NY skyline. It's really odd though, it does look totally empty without the twin towers. We went to visit the site today and it wasnt' what I expected it to be. There's no memorial yet, so it just looked like a building site, it was hard to imaging what had gone on there just less than a year ago. What really brought it home was that we visited grand central station and there was a big board up with missing posters and memorials that families had posted up. It was really quite upseting realizing just how many people were lost and seeing some of the faces of those lost.

On to happier things, we went and rented bikes for a couple of hours to go round Central Park. It was really good fun and definately a good way to see things. We managed to get about three quarters of the way round which we thought was pretty impressive. After that we did a tour of the NBC studios here where the Saturday Night Live show is filmed. It was pretty good fun too. To end our day we went up the Empire State Building. It felt so high up, I was pretty scared, but it was an amazing view of the city, it makes you appreciate the size of this place, take it from me, it's huge!

We have one more day in NY, we're hoping to see a broadway show tomorrow, they sell the tickets off cheap at lunch time, so it depends if there's something going cheap that we want to see. Then the next day we're off to Canada, so it'll be farewell USA.

Til Canada B'bye!

2002-08-22T05:07:00.000Z

After a few tech problems we can now bring the first batch of US pictures......

Anna at Sydney Airport

Anna in Honolulu

Ewan and Anna Diving

Ewan and Anna at Hollywood

Anna playing the slots at Las Vegas

Ewan at The Grande Canyon

Anna at the Mexican border

A brief stop at Houston, Texas

Anna in New Orleans

New Orleans

New Orleans

Anna in Mardi Gras gear

!

Ewan at Disney Magic Kingdom

Ewan and Anna at Kennedy Space Centre

And from Atlanta....
At The Atlanta Braves Baseball

Ewan’s Dad, Ewan’s brother Neill, Anna and Ewan at Atlanta Braves Turner Field Stadium (former Olympic Stadium)

Anna’s mum sent a “delivered” birthday cake , balloons and champers as she had her birthday while at Chase and Steve’s in Atlanta.

Ewan later bringing in the cake......

.....and Anna blowing out the candles

Neill with Anna and Ewan at CNN Centre

Anna and Ewan in the fountain at Centenial Gardens, Atlanta

Ewan and Anna caught “blogging” at Steve and Chase’s

Andrew, Ewan, Anna and Neill at the World of Coca Cola (Coke was “invented’ in Atlanta over 100 years ago)

Eilidh (Chase and Steve’s daughter) tries some of Anna’s birthday cake

......more to come soon!

2002-08-22T03:03:00.000Z

So, following on from the last blog, we got to Atlanta on saturday night, when we were picked up at the station by Chase and Steve . I ‘ve been really looking forward to coming here to see both Chase & Steve , Eilidh, as well as some of my old haunts in Atlanta. Now, Chase and Steve left Eilidh with “babysitters” when they came to pick us up. When we walked through the front door we met them, and we both got the surprise of our life. The babysitters were my dad and my brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn’t believe they were here! It was just so bizzare, and completely unexpected. What a brilliant surprise. So we stayed up late and chatted the night away, which was loads of fun. It’s really strange we’ve been away for almost 4 months, and until now, Bob has been the only person we’ve seen that we know from home. Aparently they’ve had this planned since before we even started our trip! The funny thing was when I walked through the front door without my glasses on I couldn’t see who it was over the other side of the room - so i just kinda waved and said Hi, then I pulled them down over my head after Anna had said ‘Oh my God’ a few times!
So we’ve been doing all our sighseeing in Atlanta with them. On Sunday we went to Turner field to watch the Atlanta Braves take on the Colorado Rockies at baseball, which was very cool. Neill bought some foam fingers and we all got involved in the chanting! On the way home we got stuck in a thunderstorm and I got soakd to the skin trying to hail a Taxi while everyone else stood under shelter. The only reason I mention it is because they’ve got a nice picture of me standing in the rain trying to shelter myself with a foam finger. FAt night we went to The Vortex for dinner. If you’re ever in Atlanta, you have to check it out. You should see the set of rules on the back of the menu, and the burgers were pretty good too. On Monday we went to CNN Center for the studio tour, Centennial Olympic park to play in the fountains!, Underground Atlanta for some shopping, and the World of Coca-cola to learn about the worlds best known brand. Yesterday we took MARTA to Lennox mall and did some shopping and I got some new clothes. Anna has “never seen me look so cool”, so they must be nice! We had a really great BBQ at night. I don’t think anyone understands how nice it is for us to have home made food again!
Today we went to Stone Mountain, which for all you Trivial Pursuit lovers is the largest granite outcrop in the world. Carved onto the side are three confederate heros, a very spectacular place. We got to go up the mountain on a cable car, go around it on a train, get involved in a train robbery and got to wander around a re-created 1870’s mining town (with a 4D cinema). It was all very good. We’re about to go out for dinner at the mexican that I frequented with Chase and Steve last time I was here, and catch our train at half seven - provided it’s on time......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2002-08-21T00:23:00.000Z

Hello there!

Well it’s been a while since we blogged -mainly because we couldn’t find a place to do it. Anyway, I supose I should start off from where we last wrote. The train to Orlando from New Orleans ended up being 6 hours late, so we had another annoying wait at the station. We’ve dubbed them AMKAK. So this meant that we didn’t get to the hostel until about 4am (instead of about 8pm the night before). The train didn’t even get to Orlando, it stopped 2 stations before it where we all had to get out of the train and get onto a bus. Not to dwell on the negative or anything! Anyway, we found ourselves in sunny Kissimmee on the outskirts of Orlando, close to Disneyworld, where we went the first day. We spent 4 days in Disneyworld (the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, MGM studios, and Epcot), a day at Universal studios and a day at NASA’s Kennedy space center. Certainly a busy week! Our favorite attractions were The Rockin’ Rollercoaster in MGM, which after the 4th time felt like it had separated my brain from my skull. The Buzz lightyear and Men in Black rides were really cool cause you got to control your own spaceship and shoot aliens. The Who Wants to be a Millionaire one was really good as well. They have a complete set built, and play it out like a real game - with everyone in the audience being able to play along too, and get into the hotseat. Anna realised though that she wouldn’t get passed fastest finger first if she was to play it in real life - she got way too stressed out!. We also really enjoyed the shows of Festival of the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast (although Anna was a bit disapointed because the beast really was a beast even after he had been transformed back to the hansome prince!) The other ride we really liked was The Tower of Terror. We were waiting in line during the daily thunderstorm. Lightening struck about 10m away from where we were Queing. The reason this was especially scary was because the whole story behind the ride is that lightening strikes the hotel sending the elevator plumeting to the ground. So it made it more believable!

Kennedy was really good as well. We were taken out to get a look at the launch pads, the Saturn V centre where one of the original rockets still resides and loads of other cool stuff like a talk given by an astronaut. So we did loads of stuff had loads of fun.
On Saturday we went to the greyhound station to get our bus to Atlanta. This made us glad we’ve been traveling on the train and not the bus. The 3 greyhound staions we’ve been are hot, busy chaotic and even a bit threatening. However the actual bus service was very good - we got there when they said we would! So we arrived in Atlanta and Chase and Steve came to pick us up at the station. Little did we know what was awaiting us back at the house.......

2002-08-18T15:20:00.000Z

Hi There,

Sorry if you've tried to access the archives, it's not working at the moment, but hope to have it fixed soon! Hope you like the new design in the meantime though.

Ewan

2002-08-18T14:39:00.000Z

Hi Home base calling - but from Atlanta ! (as Neill and myself have ‘decamped’ to surprise Ewan and Anna! )- ...and boy were they surprised to see us here when they arrived last night!!!? - I don’t think they can quite believe it. They will be updating the blog about their week in Florida shortly (they had problems getting internet access there)
Plus today is Anna’s birthday - so she has had extra fun openiing cards and ‘pressys’.

We’re all off to see the Atlanta Braves (baseball) shortly.

2002-08-09T21:29:00.000Z

"Er... sssshh ......... Houston, we have a problem.........."

Hello all,

Like the bungy pictures?!!!!!!

Well the train from El Paso was 2 hours late, but by the time we got to Houston, it was 7. So instead of getting in at 8pm it was closer to 4 in the morning!
Thoroughly annoying. Oh, for those not following the itinery - we're in New Orleans - or New Awlins if you're a local. It's such a unique city, quite unlike anything either of us have ever seen in the US. Beautiful old buildings, Jazz and Voodoo! On wednesday we went on the trams and then a paddle steamer on the Mississippi river. and just chilled out because we were still tierd from the train situation. Yesterday we went on a walking tour around the French Quarter, learning about the history of the Creole culture. We were taken to St Louis cemetary number 1, which was very interesting, because all the graves were above ground because of the height of the water table. Then we crossed the river to Algiers where we went to Mardi Gras World - where they make floats for Mardi Gras. We got toured aroiund the place and got to try on some of the costumes and see them making next years floats. At night we went down to Bourbon Street to check out some Jazz clubs. We found a really good one called Maison Bourbon, where we listened to a Jazz band. We've now got their CD! We've been taking it easy today again, going to the French Market and stopping off at Cafe du Monde for some beignet which are brilliant french doughnuts (the official doughnut of Louisiana no less!).

Now we're waiting for our train. It's only 2 hours late just now - but who knows what time it'll get into Orlando at?!!!!!

2002-08-07T14:19:00.000Z

Home Base Calling

We have now managed to get hold of Ewan's "Bungy Jump" photos from New Zealand.
(If only just to remind him not to ever do it again!)

Ewan at far right (wearing a nervous smile?)

GO !

Wow!

Glad to say I didn't know about it till afterwards ......(by the way he "survived" !)

2002-08-05T19:24:00.000Z

Hi Y'all,

Well since we last blogged, we've been on trains and buses for about 20 hours, but it was worth it. Were at the Grand canyon on Friday. Really didn't expect to be impressed, but was. They have it all really well set up, with shuttle buses running from the village out east and out west which all stop at the places with the best views. We first of all went west as it was the on with the most stops and I wasnt' really too impressed. But then the rain came on and we decided that we'd go out the east route. We were the only people on the shuttle bus adn by the first stop the rain had gone off. It was just amazing. You were looking at this gorgeous , vast scenery in complete silence. No tourist chatter or cameras clicking. It made it so much more spectacular than when you're surrounded by thousands of people. the bus driver told us to walk to the next stop, "follow the rim" were her exact words, well the path was a little close to the edge for my likeing - a pretty steep fall of about 6000 feet - and when we were cut off by a bunch of not to cautious deer, I decided we should turn back! One of the deer must have decided we looked interesting as it followed us back to the bus stop. They're obviously quite used to seeing tourists!

Saturday, we started making our way to El Paso, another 3 hour wait at the amtrak station (we have had to wait at least 2 hours for each train we've been on). It was a very long day, we had 7 hours on a train and 5 hours on a bus. El Paso is a really nice place though, we've got a lovely old hotel that has a lift that you have to maually open and shut the doors on! Apparently it's the third safest city in the US, didn't feel very safe walking down the streets at 11pm though.

El Paso is practically joined to the city over the river in Mexico called Juarez, so we made the 10 minute trip to the other side yesterday. It was quite an experience, you wouldn't think that two places just 100m apart could be so different. The mexican city had dirty streets, holes in the road, buses that look like they were made in the 50's and there were loads of beggers lining the streets. It was a bit scary. We went to the market and got hassled as bad as we did in india. It was really strange, and then you walk back across the bridge and the roads are clean, nice buses and no beggers. It was a very strange experience.

We're just waiting for our train to New Orleans now, guess what, it's already 2 hours late! We have a 28 hour train journey to get there, so that should be fun! Then we'll only be 6 hours behind home, the closest we've been to GMT since we left!

2002-07-31T08:00:00.000Z

Hello there!

Well we made it to the mainland safe and sound to start our adventurous and somewhat ambitious tour accross the United States. First stop LA, which was pretty cool. We stayed in Hollywood, so were quite central for most of the things we wanted to do, like the Hollywood sign, the walk of fame etc etc. We also managed to get down to Venice beach, and Santa monica (baywatch country) and check out sunset strip. As part of the tour we got to go through beverly hills and Bell Air - to see all the homes of the rich and famous - it's a whole other world out there! It's such a massive city, and pretty darned polluted, but it had a really good buzz about it. We also went to the chinese mansions to see the hand and foot prints of the stars, see some people arrive for a movie premiere and got to sit in the star trek set and the cheers bar!

After a bit of shopping yesterday it was off to the train station to go to vegas! Unfortunately the train was 2 hours late - the only train all night that wasn't on time. Then there was absolute chaos, as everyone wanted to get on it - and the guys at the train station were just going mental shouting at everyone. Anyway, it was worth the wait. The trains are actually pretty cool - double deckers, with seats that recline right back with leg and foot rests! We didn't get much sleep though - with a group of kids behind us jumping all around the place and the fact that we had to get off and transfer at needles. Oh well! So we got into Vegas as the sun was coming up - what an amazing place. A huge city in the middle of the desert!!!!! Man it's hot here - it was meant to get up to about 43 deg C today (or 115F for you guys still using pounds and ounces). We're staying in a hostel downtown - meant to be the most dodgy area of the city - but no problems so far - infact the people around here seem very friendly. So after catching up on a bit of sleep we headed down to 'the strip' WOW! Some of the stuff here is unbelievable. First we went to the Star Trek experience - which was very cool - much better than we expected. You get taken onto the starship enterprise, on the flight deck, along corridors etc, with loads of actors playing along in the story! Then we went down to the shopping malls - most shops out of our price range, but just going in is lots of fun. We went to the Venetian, which has canals and gondolas - within the mall! and all built up like an ancient city. We went to Aladdins - made to look like morroco with rain coming from the roof!, and Caesars palace. We went and got outr $15 all you can eat buffet - Anna's faveorite word! Then of course their was the Casinos!!!!!! We spent a bit of time playing the slots which was fun - although Anna's now bordering on becoming a gambling addict! We mostly played the 5 cents machines though - hence only $8 down for the night! Then we went to paris to go up the replica Eiffel Tower - but they had some sort of problem so closed it, but anyway it was a pretty good day all in all. So we've got another day in Vegas and then get our train to Flagstaff. Incidently, there's only been two AmTRAK accidents since we got here - which may cause anna to develop a new fear!!!!!!!!!!. Until then, as those chaps with the pointy ears say, Live long and Perspire!!!!!!!

2002-07-27T02:23:00.000Z

Aloha everybody!

Well we've found the sun again and got rid of all those huge jackets and jumpers, and our backpacks are soo much lighter! Hawaii is definitley not how I expected it to be. It's not bad, it's just unbelievably commercialised. I think it's all the more obvious when we've come from New Zealand, which although is touristy, it still seems unspoilt by it. Our first day was really nice, we walked up to one of the extinct volcanoes that looks out over waikiki and honolulu. You got great views from up there.

Yesterday was a bit disappointing and really highlighted the commercialism to us. We started out by going to visit Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona memorial. I thought this was going to be a really good experience and very sobering, but it was a bit like a tourist circus to be honest, and I found it really disrespectful. We arrived at about 8am and there was already a queue of about 250 people in front of us. They give you a ticket and you have to wait for your turn to go and see a film about the attack on Pearl Harbour. After the film, everyone piles out of the doors and gets on a boat, where your bussed out to see the memorial, which is straddling the wreck of the Arizona, which still contains about 1000 bodies which they never managed to get out. What I found really sad was that people were standing chatting away and posing for photos with the pieces of the wreck that were sticking out of the water. I spoke to someone who had been at a different time than me who said that there was complete silence on the memorial and it was a very emotional experience. I just found it incredibly sad that people could talk freely and pose for photos, effectively while standing on peoples graves. I also found the way they were just bussing through so many tourists sad as well. I think seeing the memorial from a distance and watching the film they showed would have been a far more emotional experience rather than turning it into a tourist attraction.

Ok, I've had my rant about that, now on to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. This was quite unbelievable. Having had a brilliant time at the Maori cultural evening in New Zealand, we wanted to do a similar thing here. The PCC is the 2nd biggest tourist attraction on the island (after Pearl Harbour), it represents all the polynesian islands (including nz) and we were told it was really good. We felt totally ripped off by the experience. We arrived on the bus and were advised by our driver to take a guide who could show us the best bits of the centre in the time we had. So we paid for our guide, who basically walked us to the different cultural shows and didnn't talk to us at all. WE could have walked ourselves and chosen the bits we actually wanted to see rather than going where he wanted us to. I couldn't believe it, but somebody actually tipped him at the end of it - he honestly did not say a single word to us when we were in the centre - except asking for our money. The Lau'au was really bad, they were so many people there, not that much food, and what there was was pretty gross. And the main feature, the night performance of all the different cultural dances at the end of the night I, again, found disrespectful. It's maybe because we had been to the Maori Hangi. You came out of that totally respecting they're culture and beliefs, this was just like a circus displaying the people. Tourists could have they're pictures taken with a "maori", or a "Samoan". Also, people were laughing during some of the maori dances. In new zealand the audience was specifically told not to laugh, no matter how funny it seemed, because it was extremely disrespectful to their culture. I just came away really annoyed that we'd paid to go there.

Anyway, today has been really good, we went snorkelling in Hanauman Bay (you had to pay $3 to get onto it - surprise!). It was good fun, we saw loads of funny coloured fishes, and got a bit carryed away with our underwater camera - be prepared to look at about 20 pictures of fish! The only thing was that the coral all looks totally manky now because so many people go there to snorkell. They're having to shut the place down 1 day a week to try and let it recover a bit.

That's about it from Hawaii, I have to say, I don't think I would ever come back to Oahu, it's just so touristy and over commercialised (can you tell it annoyed me slightly!) Some of the other islands are supposed to be a lot less spoilt - but for how long I wonder?

2002-07-23T22:36:00.000Z

Hi there,

Just a quick blog from Sydney Airport - yes we're back in Australia, on transit to Hawaii. The funny thing is, that we're going to take off today, and arrive yesterday! I wonder what the date stamp on the blog does with that?!!!!!! Anyway, signing off from the southern hemisphere, it's 8.30 am on the 24th July.
From now on we're going to be behind time from all you people back home.
See ya's

Ewan

2002-07-23T04:19:00.000Z

Ewan stopped before he got to the bit about my bungy jump. I was all harnessed up and had the bungy cord attached and everything, I even had my picture taken waving at the camera, but I looked out over the edge and realised that I just couldn't do it. Your instincts are telling you you're going to die, even though you know how safe it is. I just couldn't make myself jump over the edge. I didn't realise how hard it was to do. I really regret it now, Ewan came off totally buzzing and I felt really low. But we got a gondola down to the bottom of the mountain with the bungy guys and they were really nice to me. They said some people just can't do it and they respected my instincts!! Don't think I'll ever try it again though, I've had enough of adrenaline sports!

The next day we left Queenstown to go to Dunedin. It's supposed to be the most Scottish city outside of Scotland, but the only thing that seemed very scottish to me was a statue of Rabbie Burns, the buildings didn't look scottish at all. We met up with one of Ewan's friends from home, who's working in Dunedin, so he showed us round and even took us up to the only castle in new zealand. Went out at night and Ewan was a bit worse for wear, and had to sit through a 5 hour bus journey to Christchurch the next day! He got a rest bites when we stopped to see Moerekis boulders, in between the two places. The boulders are like perfect circles just sitting on the beach, very bizzare looking - so we have loads more photos of rocks!

So we're in christchurch now, and have just been relaxing a bit after our hectic couple of weeks. Last night we went to a leisure pool that had a spa, sauna and steam room so we had a really nice evening - and it only cost a pound. We're going to be so sick when we come home and start having to pay british prices for things again!

Today we've just been getting ourselves organised for our trip tonight - we head off to Hawaii at 5am tomorrow, and arrive tonight at 11pm (we cross the international date line if I've confused anybody!). Bought some final souvenirs and packaged up a parcel to go home. It was pretty heavy since it has a whole load of winter clothes in it, we won't be needing them where we're going. We've even been super organised and bought our plane ticket from london to edinburgh. A bit scary since it doesn't seem that far away now.

Anyway, better go, still lots of organising to do.

2002-07-22T10:35:00.000Z

Hi there. Not blogged for a few days cause we've been too busy doing stuff. Where shall I start? Last time I wrote was in Makarora. It's a funny little place, with a population of about 20, we doubled it when we arrived on the magic bus! There's not much of note. A visitors centre, a shop with internet and some triangular cabins. What they call a wilderness stop. We just took the time to relax, make dinner and drink! There were some activities like a scenic flight and jet boating - but we've been on lots of boats and planes on this trip already. We were going to do the flying fox, but it just looked like one of the locals had banged a few planks of wood up a tree and tied a wire from that tree to another one! Anyway, again very beutiful scenery. In the morning we travelled to Lake Matheson, which we walked around and anna took a very good picture of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - check out the reflection on the water -

After that we travelled on to a really nice place called Wanaka for lunch. Another place we'll probably go back to. We stopped off at puzzling world which has a really brilliant maze that I managed to get lost in for an hour and insde they've got some really wierd rooms and visual illusions.

Somebody shrunk Anna at puzzling World

After that we headed for Queenstown, stopping at the Kawarau gorge to see the worls first bungy site set up by AJ Hackett, and stayed to watch a bus load of American schoolkids throw themselves off the bridge!
So then it was into Queenstown. What a lovely place. It's like an Alpine resort with all hte ski fields nearby. It was kinda like a super cool Aviemore - just with less concrete and more stuff to do! We took the Gondola up to the top of the mountain to get a good view of the town and check out the Ledge bungy site - but more about that in a moment.

Me Looking down on Queenstown

The town was buzzing at the weekend because there's a winter festival on just now. Luckily we booked all our accomodation from Australia, because nearly all the beds in the town were taken. We stayed in the Hippo Lodge at the top of a really steep street, which was really nice. We had our own bathroom and kitchen - What Luxury !!!!!! The next day we went up the remarkables mountain range for some fun in the snow. Anna got skiing lessons and I got to try Snowboarding for the first time! We both had a really good time. I can turn and everything!!!!! Anna thought I looked really cool, and she never thinks that, so maybe I'll become a boarder rather than a skier! The trip back down the mountain was a bit scary though. We were on a bus on an unsealed gravel road with no barriers and shear drops of about 500m. We spent most of the trip down with our eyes closed!

Now that was scary, but not half as scary as what happened at night!!!!!!

So now back to the Ledge story. Now Anna had been going on about wanting to do a bungy jump ever since we left the Kawarau bridge - simply because it would be another thing to put on her list of achievments from this trip, and lets face it, she has become a bit of a daredevil ever since we arrived in this country! I, on the other hand have never had any compulsion to do a bungy jump, simply because the thought of it scares the shit out of me! I would much rather throw myself out of a plane. However even after I tried for a couple of hours to put Anna off the idea, we went along to the bungy shop and booked a bungy jump from the Ledge. The main reason I was booked on was the simple fact that I couldn't let Anna do one, and me not - I would never hear the end of it. The ledge is a platform built out from the edge of the mountain overlooking Queenstown - 400m above the town. So we went up, checked in, signed our lives away on a disclaimer and went out onto the ledge and waited in line to throw ourselves off it. What fun I hear you saying to yourselves! It wasn't until we were up there that Anna realised the significance of what we had arranged to do. Unlike other bungys that I've seen, this one you're not tied by your feet - you get a harness around your waist. So It came to my turn. So one of the bungy guys helped me put my harness on, told me to take a seat until the guy infront had gone, and before I knew it I was summoned up to the edge to wave at the camera. Now because I wasn't tied by my feet it was possible to take a run at it - as advised by the pumped up bungy guys! So I did. I took five steps back, ran towards the edge, the guys counted me down and I took a run and did a superman dive off the edge!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!! It was absolutely amazing. What a rush!!!!! Anyway I've written quite enopugh, so Anna can finish off about what we've done since.

This is what I threw myself off!!!!!!

2002-07-22T10:01:00.000Z

Greetings! The latest batch of photos from New Zealand...........

Anna and the plane at Picton airport

A long way from home!

Me on the glacier

Anna on the glacier

Anna crawling through a meltwater tunnel

Our travel in the last 13 days

2002-07-18T05:27:00.000Z

Hello there!

Where shall I start! We left Nelson on Monday and headed down the coast, stopping at some scenic spots along the way like a seal colony and the pancake rocks, and saw things like blow holes and stuff. This country is very scenic, and full of great examples of facinating geological features - which Anna knows all too well now. I get the feeling that she's getting a bit bored of them. We got into Greymouth quite early, so we went for a walk to watch the sun go down and went for the famous $3 BBQ at the railway hotel. They said it was world famous, but I don't know whether that was true or not. Anyhows, it was an all you can eat barbie for a quid - which you certainly can't complain about! Beer here incidently hasn't cost me more than $4 a pop, and most places it's cheaper. So I can have beer, and all the sausages I want for two pounds. And the Australians think this country's expensive!

I should really stop being so obsessed by money! Anyway, the morning after that we went to a little gold mining township called Ross, where they...... mine gold! We got to have a go at it the old fashioned way - gold panning, and surprisingly enough we both struck lucky! However, we don't think it's enough to retire on. Probably not even enough to pay for dinner! But it was cool all the same. They still mine there now, but next year their going to fill in the mine with water and turn it into a recreational area! At about lunchtime we cruised into a little villiage called Franz Josef in the middle of the mountains. Cracking scenery, and it just so happens that there's this great big Glacier in the valley above! So this being New Zealand - world capital of adrenalin activities - we decided to do a Heli-Hike onto it. Can you imagine my excitement??!!!! It was such a beutiful day, we decided to do it instead of just hiking up from the bottom like we had planned, and it was so much worth the extra cost. We started by getting kitted out at the bottom, and briefed about what we were going to do. Then they take you down to the heli pad, where you get into a Helicopter. I've never been in a helicopter before, so was very excited. Anna has been in a helicopter before ('but only over Ellon') but was absolutely petrified! All credit to her though, she got in and forgot all about it once we were up in the air flying up through the valley. It was fantastic. They took us up to about three quarters of the way up, and dropped us off, where we were met by our guide A.J. Now, Anna had been scared by her flight up in the Helicopter. It wasn't until she got onto the glacier that she realised that she should have been far more scared about the trek itself! We got kitted out with our Talons (like crampons with smaller spikes) and an ice pick, and were led into a heavily crevassed ice fall in the middle of the glacier. He took us up steep bits, through crevasses, old melt hole tunnels where we had to slide through. What an adventure! Anna was having a bit of a nightmare though! But our guide was really good, and gave her lots on encouragement, so she got into the swing of it and started enjoying herself. She stepped knee deep into a freezing meltwater pool about 5 minutes in, which didn't impress her much though. I had a bit of a scary moment too. I got stuck in one of the cracks we went through. I think only 4 of us did it because it was so tight. We just had to lower ourselves down through this crack, and wiggle out to the other side. But the rope got stuck to my talons on my foot, which left me stuck between two bits of ice - my body in a star shape on it's side, with my foot caught on a rope! I eventually got free by wiggling a bit more and letting gravity take it's course! We should have some brilliant pictures. By the way, the reason I've got shorts on, while nobody else does, is because I was sucked in by the advice of the magic bus driver for the second time! So after 2 hours trecking about, we flew back down to the villiage as the sun was going down - just brilliant! If you ever get a chance to come and do this you've gotta do it! Anyway, I've got to finish now, cause this place closes in 2 minutes, write more soon,

All the best
Ewan

2002-07-16T05:52:00.000Z

Just thought we'd post a couple of poems written by Victoria and Rachel (Shakespeare Sisters!) which beautifully sums up our few days in the North!

We all met on the magic bus,
Together there were five of us.
Anna, Rachel, Vic and Rob
And Ewan completed the mob.

We had a lovely river walk
Where we had lots of time to talk
But the rain had made a puddle
Which left us in a great big muddle.
Should we go back or just go on?
But by then the bus had gone.
So we had to paddle through
While Ewan went to the loo!

Later we got friendlier by far
Squashed into a crazy car.
The guys' driving was far too good,
They never too us through the mud.
Rachel couldn't reach the brake
Which made us all with laughter shake.

To relax we went to thermal spas
And spotted emus in the stars.
Vic said, "What drugs are you on?"
Unfortunately there were none.

But there was plenty of different ales
And also quite a few kiwi males.
Two guys challenged us to pool
Thinking they were really cool.
So we got out our skipping rope
With that they found they could not cope!
Everybody had a try
While Fiona stopped being shy.
On a man she went and sat,
By the morning she had his hat!

The next day our heads were sore
And we were frozen to the core.
That day's drive was such a bore -
But thank the lord Vic didn't snore!

Later Anna was having a trauma,
While Rob cooked a vegie korma,
She didn't want to go in the plane.
It was driving us insane.
We promised to rub the radiator,
And told her to email us later.
We didn't rub it hard enough
Because the flight was really rough.

We were a very merry group
Laughing at Ewan stirring the soup!
But now we'll go our separate ways
And always remember those happy days.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a young girl from Brum
Who chatted to Tum and Jum
And then there was Bin
Who looked about tin (ten)
And they all thought poor Rarechel was dumb.

There was a young girl called Vic
Who snorted so much she was sick
She looked like a fool
When she tried to play pool
That everyone took the mick.

There was a young man called Rob
Who looked like a bit of a yob
But out came the rope
And then there was hope
He attracted a very large mob.

There was a young couple of scots
Who loved to stir soup pots
Anna was loud
While Ewan was proud
Of stirring the soup lots and lots.

(To read the first one you need a kiwi followed by a
yorkshire accent)

Thanks guys!

2002-07-15T06:48:00.000Z

Hi folks, some more photos........

Outside Lou's house in Ramsey Street

Anna at the 12 Apostles

Anna walking on the glass floor at the sky tower in Auckland

Just before we left Auckland and the storm came in

Steam coming from the ground in Rotorua!

A mauri concert

Me at thermal wonderland.

Crazy cars with Rob, Anna, Rachael and Victoria

Skipping in a Kiwi pub, after watching New Zealand play Australia

Snowy Volcano!

2002-07-15T05:38:00.000Z

Would just like to start by saying - I'M ALIVE!!! You'll understand why later on!

Well, we've only been in New Zealand for 3 whole days, and already we're on the South Island. It's been a bit of a mad few days, but we've seen loads and made a few really good friends. We didn't have much time in Auckland, so all we really did was go up the sky tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere (big buildings are replacing boats these days!), and stay out of the rain. Then at 8am the next morning we started our tour of NZ. The first day was a bit disappointing, we were supposed to go down these caves to see glow worms, but they'd been shut because of the rain. So we went straight to a place called Rotorua. What a wierd place! In most parts of the world the earths crust is about 75km thick but in Rotorua and surrounding areas, it's only about 7-17km thick (I think that's the values, but I'll get Ewan to check them later). Anyway, whatever, the crust is a lot thinner there than anywhere else, so the heat from the earths core gets through. This results in mad, steaming rocks, parks full of boiling ponds, steaming lakes and bubbling mud. It was very bizarre. The other result is there is an awful smell in the town like rotten eggs, because of the sulphuric acid coming up. You get used to it eventually. That night we went to a Maori Hangi. I expected to be really put on and a bit naff, but it was absolutely brilliant. You have to go through a whole ritual thing to get into their village, then there were demonstrations of their crafting skills and games. Then you got invited into their meeting house where they did speeches in Maori (translated by someone!), dances and demonstrated their reflexes and fighting skills. Then, the best bit, they did the Hukka, their war dance. I swear, if they did that to me on the battlefield, I would run the other way! You came away really respecting them and their culture, and realised why the British had to fight them for four years. You also got a gorgeous meal that was cooked in their traditional way in the ground. Everything had a lovely smoky taste, we both really enjoyed ourselves.

The next day we visited a place called thermal wonderland. This place is again the result of how thin the crust is in the area. I was quite disappointed, because we knew we were going to see the Lady Knox Geiser, which goes off every day at 10.15. I thought this was amazing that it was so regular, it turned out that they induce the geiser using soap! It was still pretty impressive though. The rest of the place was amazing. There were all sorts of wierd and wonderful coloured ponds and just generally strange landscape. It totally didn't feel like we were on this planet!! We then went to this place called Rock n Ropes. It was like a fun park for adrenaline junkies! There was this thing called the swing that was really high up and you jumped off it and free fall until the rope kicks in. Needless to say, the adrenaline flows quite freely round my body anyway, without having to induce it by doing stupid things like that, so I didn't, neither did anyone else in our group, we were all chicken! We did a thing called crazy cars. It was ace, when you turned the steering wheel one way the car goes the other. There were five of us squished into a VW Beatle. The two boys were too good, they had it totally sussed, and it was very boring, but when us girls took the wheel, well lets just say it wasn't boring!! We did a really nice walk along the Huka Falls. At one point the river has to go through a really narrow bit and the water is so fast, apparently a few people have tried to raft and canoe it with pretty nasty consequences. It was dead funny, the bus driver was meeting us at the other end of the walk, about 3km away. In the first 5 minutes, we got to a huge flood on the path and couldn't get through, but our driver had already gone. Some people ran through it without their shoes on, but luckily, Ewan found a path through all the bushes, I was glad that there are no snakes or other beasties here in NZ! At the end of the walk you get to a bit where there's a steaming little burn running into the river. It's really funny, cause as it mixes with the cold water you can see the path of the hot water from the steam coming off it. We then arrived in a place called Turangi, where we were staying for the night. We went to a spa pool, it was so lovely. It's naturally hot water pumped in from the natural hot mineral springs in the area. It's supposed to be really good for your skin, and was very hot! At night we had a kind of group BBQ, which was so much fun. We got a skipping rope out in the middle of the pub quite late on and couldn't believe the amount of Kiwi blokes that were desperate for a go to jump rope!!

The next day, we didn't do too much except sit on a bus. The views were spectacular though, and we did get to stop to take a few photos, the most impressive were of an active volcanoe, covered in snow that people ski on - are they mad! Clear blue skies until we got into Wellington where it was very cold and wet.

Here is where I will begin my tale of our close brush with death! We weren't able to get tickets for the Ferry across to the South Island because the seas were so choppy. We're so short on time that if we didn't make the bus over here today, we wouldn't be able to stay on the bus tour til the end without missing our flight out. So we decided to get the plane over, a 14 seater plane. I took a lot of persuading, but realised it would be worth 25 minutes of uncomfortableness so we could still see everything we wanted to. How wrong could I be!! The take off was pretty uncomfortable because of the strength of the wind, but after 5 minutes it all totally calmed down, and I was even getting really cocky at how fine I was in this little plane, I even let Ewan take some pictures (usually I'm very supersticious about picture taking on planes). Just as he was finished taking the pictures, and about 10 minutes before the end of the flight, we hit an air pocket. And after that it got worse, the plane was swaying from side to side and up and down a lot, and then occasionally it would hit air pockets and just drop for a second so that everyone lifted out of their seat. I was absolutely petrified and Ewan admitted later that he was too, so it wasn't just me being a scaredy cat. I can't describe properly how badly the plane was being thrown around by the wind, but don't worry, if I talk to you, I'm sure to go on about it for a few hours!!

Now we're in Nelson. We're a bit sad, cause we've had to leave a few friends behind, their not on such tight schedules as us and are spending some time in Wellington. Nevermind, we'll just have to hope we have as nice a bunch of people in the South as we did in the North.

Update you again soon, and I'M ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

2002-07-14T14:35:00.000Z

Another message from Atlanta-
Greetings Blogsters!
This is Atlanta calling. We have received your messages from Chaweng
Beach, Singapore & Malaysia - good work! We've had trouble breaking the
code in the Singapore communiqué so you might have to decipher it for us
when you get to Atlanta.
Everything is in place for ATL rendezvous.
All key parties are very excited.
Until then, watch where you step (Anna!) & keep on bloggin'!
XOXO
Ch,S&E

2002-07-11T08:26:00.000Z

Hi Y'all,

We've been super quick with our photo developing so we've got pictures below that we haven't explained yet - funnily enough, we didn't just bump into harold and toadie from neighbours in a pub! Melbourne was a pretty cool place, but glad we were only there for 3 days, there wouldn't have been much else for us to do.

On our first day we first of all had a lie in - these tours make you get up at horrific hours in the morning! Then we went to see a few of Melbournes sights, like the Rialto tower, which is the tallest building in Melbourne and you see excellent views, and the melbourne gaol, where ned kelly was hanged. It was a bit of a freaky place actually. Most of the cells had displays in them, and for most of the time they were performing hangings at the gaol, they made a plaster cast of the peoples heads after they had been hung. Apparently it was to do with psychological research (bloody psychologists!!), they thought there was some kind of relation between the length of your forehead and length of your nose (something like that anyway!) and criminal behaviour. Needless to say, they found out that this wasn't the case, and the criminals they were hanging had the same forehead:nose ratio as the "respectable" people of the community. But it's very strange looking at these plaster casts, knowing that it's exactly what the person looked liked just after being hung. And Ned Kelly's death mask was there too, and that was a bit strange as we'd heard loads about him the previous few days on our way to melbourne. That night, we did something completely different and far less gruesome. We went to a neighbours night! It was too cool. As you've probably noticed, we got to meet toadie, harold and joe scully (we didn't think he was as exciting so didn't include his snap!). We had a fab night, both getting far too drunk and bearly making it home. I, somehow, managed to fall on my face and graze my chin and chip a tooth! Ewan thought it was all very amusing and took about 20 pictures of me on the way home, including one where I'd just fallen over - he's so caring! We're still debating which parents we should send this set to!

We had a real neighbours fest in melbourne. The day after we went to Ramsay Street, otherwise known as Pine Oak Crescent. I was very excited to be standing outside the Robinsons house and Madge and Harolds. We took loads of photos there too. These Australians must think we're all mad!

Our third day, we did another tour - you'd think we'd be getting sick of them by now, but they are the best way to squeeze loads into one day. We went down Great Ocean Road, a memorial road along the bottom coast of Australia, dedicated to men that died in the first world war. The ironic thing is that when the men who survived returned to Australia, there was a depression and many of them had to work on the road, and many of them died because of the rock faces they were having to build the road through. It was a spectacular drive though. We stopped at a gorge, where our guide took us into a black cave without a torch - clever man - I was first and he told me there was a big hole, I never realised how big, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my face again, a regular event in melbourne it seems! My face survived this time, but my knee didn't and I could bearly walk for the rest of the day. It's better now, so hopefully it won't impead me too much over the next couple of weeks. There are loads of coastal rock formations, which even I was impressed with. One is called the london bridge and used to be connected to the mainland until the bit connecting it collapsed in 1990 with two tourists stuck on the bit in the sea! They were rescued by news helicopters (obviously filming) and were very distressed, since they were both married, but not to each other! These are the kinds of stories you learn by taking a tour! And the most exciting part of the day, we bumped into Dave from Rugby again! Fabulous!

We're in Auckland, New Zealand now, about to embark on 14 days of mad bus touring to try and see as much of the place as we can. The weather is definitely very scottish - big grey clouds and rain!

2002-07-09T10:42:00.000Z

Hello Everybody!

Just dropping off the latest batch of photos on the blog - We'll write a bit more about the latest ones soon!

Me at Sydney Harbour Bridge, Crocodile at Australia Zoo and Anna with Steve.

The Opera House at Sunset (looking down from the bridge), During the day, and Sydney Skyline while on the ferry.

Having Coffee by the Harbour

Gold and Silver for Anna and Ewan

A swim in the Olympic Pool

Wintertime on Bondi Beach!

Our group in the Blue Mountains

A view of Canberra from Capitol Hill

Anna in Melbourne Gaol

Anna, Toadie and Me!

Anna and Toadie

Harold and us

Anna saying bye to Harold

2002-07-07T09:55:00.000Z

Hello all.

It's been ages since I wrote the blog. Anna remembers things better than me though, and so usually when I've writen it, Anna acuses me of having missed out loads of stuff! So we left Sydney for Melbourne on Thursday, with 5 other backpackers on a little bus and headed south to the Blue Mountains and got to a place called Echo point at Katoomba, where there's a lookout onto the Three Sisters - part of a Cliff face at the beggining of this magnificent mountain range. When we got out of the bus we couldn't believe how cold it was! You go down on this railway that used to be used in the old mining days, but is now used for tourists. It feels like a vertical slope on the way down! Then we went for a short walk through the forest to take in some of the brilliant views until we got to a cable car which took us back to the top (and Anna was not even scared a bit). They've got a rollercoaster track there which has been voted the best in Australia - even though it's never been used! They've been testing it filled with rocks, but it keeps falling off! Then we checked into the Blue Mountains YHA - which is a brill place to stay all cosy and warm, and went out for a Chinese with everyone at night. On friday we were up early and went for a wee trek down to see Wentworth falls and were nearly blown off the mountain! Then we travelled on to Kanangra National Park and stopped at the Jenolan caves where we went for a tour through one of them. Then it was back on the bus for a scenic drive out of New South Wales and into A.C.T. and Canberra. We didn't see much that night apart from the supermarket, the kitchen and a box of wine! In the morning we went to the top of Mount Ainslie to get a good view of this purpose built capital city. Diplomatically situated between Melbourne and Sydney because of the rivalry between them. It wasn't used as a capital for parliament until 1927. Canberra is meant to be an aboriginal word for 'meeting place'. It's strange to think of there not being anything there 100 years ago. It's eerily like Washington D.C. (maybe because it was designed by an American). It looks perfectly symetrical from above (probably because it was designed from scratch). Anyway, we went to New Parliament house and got to go in and look down from the public galleries into the house of representatives and the senate, but because it was a Saturday there weren't anly politicians there! Then we went onto the National Museum of Australia which was really good, and learnt more about Australian history which is extremely facinating. Both Anna and I feel now though that we know more about it than that of our own country! So we'll need to go home and spent lots of time learning about that (which is quite good really, because after this trip we'll never be able to afford to leave Scotland again!) So after Canberra it was back on the bus towards the Snowy Mountains. I think they're called that because they're montains that get snow - but don't quote me on that. We only saw it from a distance because the heavy rain had washed it away from the part we were driving through, so that was a bit disapointing, but I supose we'll see plenty in New Zealand. We drove on to Khancoban to a motel where we stayed last night. Watched the footie in the bar, had a few beers with the rest of the group. Today we travelled into Victoria. We couldn't believe how much it looked like Scotland. There were lots of cows and sheep, mountains, and big bad grey clouds with lots of rain pouring out of them! We stopped at Lake Hume which was a man made lake created about 50 years ago, which involved flooding a little town - the water level was quite low, so you could see the remains of trees and old buildings, which are usually submerged - very bizarre looking. We stopped at nice little town called Beechworth where there was a Scottish shop, where we stocked up on Irn Bru and Highland Toffee (not that we eat highland toffee when at home!!!) After Lunch we went to Glenrowan (Ned Kelly Country), went to the Ned Kelly museum and took pictures with a giant Ned Kelly just outside. These Austalians like building big things - big pineappe's big apples and even big sheep! On the final stint we went to Brown Brothers winery for free wine tasting before arriving in Melbourne this evening - from where I write this just now. Who says I miss stuff out! I think Anna was quite sad to leave the tour group, because that means she's just stuck with me again! We made some good friends - Anna is especially fond of "I look like Damon Hill, wear a sexy cycling top, love sticking my thumbs up and know everything there is to know about everything" Dave, from Rugby, England. But that's a story for another day! ...........See yaas, Ewan

2002-07-04T00:44:00.000Z

Sorry, it's me AGAIN! Ewan's off to the post office to post home yet another parcel, so I've been left with the responsibility of updating you all.

We've been in Sydney for the last four days. It's been amazing, altough the first day was spent mostly in a travel agent trying to sort out our trains and buses for New Zealand and the USA. But managed to fit in a boat cruise round the harbour on our first night. It's dead weird just going round the harbour with the bridge and opera house next to you. I wasn't too impressed with the opera house at first, it looked a bit dirty, but I found out it's because not all the tiles are white, they're in a pattern with beige tiles, so it wasn't dirt! Went to the worlds biggest IMAX theatre and then shopped on the first night - it is very cold here and it's going to get colder the further south we go and probably be freezing in New Zealand so we've had to add cold weather clothes to our rucksacks. I made the mistake on our first morning, of going for a swim on the roof top pool. There was steam coming off the water and I could see my breath when I was swimming around!

We did an opera house tour, which was very interesting, adn went to a place called Hyde Barracks. It was really, really interesting. It's one of the only ex-convict barracks left in Australia. We were told that the rest were destroyed because most people didnt' want to admit to the convict history of the country. Apparently, about 70% of Australians are descended from convicts. I've been really interested in the convict history and this was the first place since we got to australia that has actually talked about it properly. I even thought it was funny, that on our opera house tour, the guide was talking about the first ships that arrived with all the soldiers! The first fleet of ships to arrive had about 1100 convicts on board! We took our boat rides to a whole new level when we went Oz Jetboating around the harbour. Too much fun - you're going about 80 km/hr and the driver does all sorts of spins and things in the middle of sydney harbour! You're all strapped in with a safety bar over your knees, although I did wonder what would happen if you capsized and couldn't get out because of the saftey bar!

Yesterday we went to Olympic Park to see the Stadiums that were used in the olympics and even got to stand on the real medal podium to have our pictures taken! We also went to the Aquatic centre where the swimming events took place. It is the fastest pool in the world because of the way it stops turbulance effecting the swimmers. Ewan went for a swim in it and managed the 50m front crawl in about 10 minutes - what an effort!! That's about 5 seconds off his usual best!! At night we went to the Opera House to see a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. It was quite good, but most definitely worth it just to be sitting in the opera house watching an opera. We were in the very back row, in the cheap seats, and funnily enough, surrounded on both sides by Scots!!

We're off to Melbourne this afternoon. It's a four day trip, but because it's part of a tour that takes you to loads of places in between. We should be seeing some snow soon as we're heading up to the mountains first!

2002-07-01T23:26:00.000Z

Anna in Lake McKenzie, Me on the Highway, and me at Indian Head, Fraser Island.

Our 4WD bus on Fraser Island, a Glasgow built shipwreck on the beach, and Anna on the boat back to Hervey bay at sunset.

Anna in the big Pineapple, Ewan in the Rainforest and both of us at Perched Dune Lake on Fraser Island.

Ewan on a day trip back to the sixties with his flairs in Brisbane, Castlemaine XXXX brewery (before I had 8 beers) and me in the car.

Ewan and Anna with a snake! (Anna's just pretending not to be scared!)

2002-06-29T08:03:00.000Z

Hello again, we made it back from our trip without hitting a single kangaroo (apparently a big problem on these roads according to some people we talked to!).

Our car was pretty nifty, a turquoise, tiny, honda soft top! You have to see the pictures to believe it! It was a nice trip up to Hervey Bay. We stopped at "the big pineapple", a very bizarre experience where the main attraction is guess what - yes, a big pineapple! A plastic one that you can walk inside of. They also grow real pineapples and have trips round on the pineapple express train to look at them. And much to Ewans delight, they also produce macadamia nuts and gave free tastings!! You get a trip round in the nutmobile to see the macadamia orchards. It was a good road stop anyway!

The next day we were off to Fraser Island. It is just an amazing place. It's the biggest sand island in the world, and the only way to get around is by 4 wheel drive because all the roads are made of sand, and even better, the main highway is the beach! We went as part of a tour, so our 4WD was a bus. It was too cool. It looks like a truck with windows through it, but inside it's just like a bus. You bounce around like nothing on earth, so you have to wear seatbelts or hit the roof!

On our first day we did a few bush walks. Before we got out of the bus, our guide told us that this was the most snake and spider infested part of the island! He said there were about 80 different species of snake on the island and about 40 of them were deadly, including the most deadly snake in the world, the Taipan! Well, I didn't really appreciate the fact that I was walking through beautiful rainforests cause I couldn't take my eyes off my feet for fear of standing on one! We also saw the web of a Funnel Spider, the most poisonous spider. Luckily, it wasn't home! We then spent the afternoon at a place called Lake Mackenzie. It was gorgeous. The water is so blue and it's surrounded by rainforest. The water was very cold though- it's winter here, but still warmer than our summers!

The second day we did loads. Were speeding along the beach, saw a ship that was wrecked in the 1900's (made in Glasgow!), climbed the highest point of the island that sticks out into the sea and saw whales migrating north. We also saw a wild dingo. Fraser has the purest breed of dingo in australia because they've never bred with domestic dogs, but they've been having problems with people trying to interact with the dingos so they lose their fear of humans and someone was killed by one last year. I have so many stories to tell everyone about the island, but don't have time to write them all down, so you'll just have to wait til i get home, and i hope i'll remember them. Fraser was just an amazing experience though. I would love to go back and spend some more time there. It's just the most beautiful place.

Anyway, we've also been to another very weird place, in Hervey Bay where you access Fraser Island. This guy is a Great White Shark hunter and has set up a museum saying how bad they are and how we shouldn't believe that they're beautiful creatures - they should be killed! Have to say that I agree with him, but it's very strange he set up a museum dedicated to the fact! There was even a frozen great white in the exhibition which was a bit scary. He was basically saying that the governments have been trying to cover up how many people are killed by sharks because of the effect it would have on tourism and had lots of gory displays and lists of names of people killed by sharks. Well I tell you, I'm never going near the sea again!

On the way back to Brisbane, we stopped at the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter!! It was very cool, unfortunately Steve wasn't there, but there were plenty of enthusiastic Croc lovers singing the same song!! We had our picture taken with a big python. Ewan made me do it to get over my fear - it didn't work! It wasn't the most pleasant experience but I managed to put on a smile for the camera!

We fly to Sydney tomorrow lunchtime, a much more pleasant hour than our last few flights. So we'll speak to you from there.

2002-06-24T19:10:00.000Z

First batch of Australian pics e-mailed by Ewan as he had a techy problem – since they are now out of order and I got them further ‘muddled up’ you just have to figure out which one is which! Anyway they include Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary , Katherine River Gorge, Kakadu National Park, Mindil Beach Sunset, Brisbane Lions Aussie Rules Football……and feature…..Koalas, Crocodiles, "Skippy" the Kangaroo... and lots of Ewan and Anna!

Anna at the Aussie rules game

Anna swimming at Edith Falls

Anna looking out over Arnhem land from Ubir rock

Anna at Katherine Gorge

Katherine Gorge

Sunset Mindel beach

Crocodile on Aligator river

Cuddling a Koala

The bull that Mick Dundee tamed in the film (no loger aliver!)

Another sunset!

Ewan looking out over Aligator river from Arnhem land

Ewan on Ubir rock

Ewan feeding the Kangaroos

Ewan Katherine Gorge

2002-06-24T10:18:00.000Z

Hello everybody from the freezing south!

Well getting off the plane was a bit of a shock to the system! It was a very cold 10 degrees when we landed in Brisbane (to be fair it was 5am!), in shorts and vests I might add! We were entirely unprepared for how cold it would be, so our morning was spent very sleepily wondering around the shops to buy trousers and jumpers! It'll only get worse from here which is a bit worrying! It was a good flight though. I was sitting next to a woman who was also scared of flying so we were chatting about it for ages (she'd been on a course too!), and before I knew it, we'd taken off and landed again! It was very theraputic cause she was talking to me all through take off so I couldn't be too panicy.

We went to see a game of Aussie Rules Football on Saturday night. It was the Brisbane Lions against the Kangaroos (from Melbourne). It was totally brilliant - beats football any day of the week. The score was like 136 to 120 (to the brions, hooray!), much more exciting than 2-1! It was a really long game, about 2 and a half hours including breaks, but there was just so much happening all the time, you couldn't get bored. A big fight happened right in front of us. No one can get sent off in Aussie Rules (they have disiplinaries after) so it got quite heated at times and they're pretty aggressive. It's cool as well cause if the ball goes out the referee throws it in over his head. It was just an ace game and a fab experience. It was dead cheap as well. It only cost us a tenner each toget in and the beer was less than a pound. British football has a lot to learn!

Yesterday we went to a place called Lone Pine Koala sanctuary. It was so cool. We got to hold koalas and feed Kangaroos. The pictures should be underneath (or above depending if I beat Ewan to finishing!), just want everyone to know that I did hold the koala and feed the kangaroos, it's just the pictures of Ewan were better - just so you don't all think I was chicken! It was great just wondering through a big enclosure filled with Kangaroos and wallabies and getting to feed them. There were some huge ones though and I have actually seen an episode of "when animals attack" with a kangaroo going mental at a tourist, we spoke to this guy who had also seen it and he thought it might even have been there! The males were really huge and they were all muscley, I'm sure they could have done quite a bit of damage. I didn't go near them, but Ewan went up to one and fed it - he's mad!

Today we did the Castlemaine XXXX Brewery tour. Man, aussies drink a lot of beer! They produce so much and mostly it's just for Queensland. You got to try 4 beers at the end of the tour and we just assumed that it would be totty glasses, but it was like a half pint in each one. I don't really like beer, so Ewan had 8 half pints at 11am! I was having to hold him up walking back into town!

Tomorrow, we're hiring a car and driving up the coast a bit. It's pretty cheap to hire a car, only about 12 pounds a day, so it works a bit more expensive than public transport but far more convenient.

Anyway, that's about it for just now. Will update you all when we get back from our road trip!

PS: some technical difficulties with the piccies, hopefully they'll be on sometime in the not too distant future!

2002-06-21T12:19:00.000Z

Hello All,

Well, we've had a fantastic few days here in Darwin and surroundings. On wednesday we travelled down to Katherine, a small town about 350 k`s from Darwin. It was a really nice day, but we didn't quite appreciate how long it would take to get there. We spent abuot 10 hours on a bus and only 2 actually going around the place! We did a boat cruise (yes, another one!) down the Katherine River Gorge, which was brilliant. The river had carved its's way through the rocks, it's hard to describe just how amazing it looked, you'll all just have to wait and see the photos. Yesterday we had a bit of a lazy day, since we'd had to get up at 5.30 on Wed and the same time again today. We went to the Mindil Beach Market, which is a huge outdoor market. We met one of Anna's "rellies" who has a stall there. It was really nice to talk to some real life Aussies, and they seemed to find us quite interesting too! We didn't see much of the market since we were talking to them for the whole time it was on.

Today, we went to one of Australias biggest national parks, called Kakadu (it's about the same size as Wales!). It was amazing. Not so far away, so we spent more time outside the bus than in it which was nice. Again, it's quite impossible to describe just how amazing the landscape was here. We went on ANOTHER boat trip!, this time was along Alligator River, allthough there weren't any Alligators there were plenty of 5 metre salties (Salt water crocs!). We had an Aboriginal guide, who told us loads about their culture, which was really interesting. We got to go to Arnhem land which is an area of Aboriginal land that you need special permission to get into.

The sunsets for the last 3 nights have been absolutely fantastic. Before the market yesterday we went down to Mindil Beach to watch it - really spectacular! This is the first place on our trip where we don't think we've spent enough time though. We'll just have to come back then! Next time we'll probably get a car and travel down the Stewart Highway from Darwin, to Alice springs and then down to Adelaide, and spend a good bit of time in places in-between. Although we didn't have all the time we wanted, we're really glad that we came to Darwin, because everyone up here says that this is the Real Australia, and that the other places we're planning to go - like Sydney, are just like any other international city. The outback here is exactly how we imagined it to be, you can just imagine Steve Irwin wrestling with the crocs in Kakadu national park! We fly to Brisbane tonight (without a Didgeridoo! - we thought it was maybe a bit silly!)

So from NT
See ya in Queensland!

PS - Anna does lots of babysitting - so she knows who the Wiggles are - and even knows all the songs! - so she promises to keep an eye out for them!

2002-06-21T10:19:00.000Z

Home Base (again!) - To try and solve problems some users were experiencing with the blog - superimposed text, flashing pictures- we have changed the template to see if this one works better!

2002-06-20T09:38:00.000Z

Home Base Calling - Another external post to the blog from Chase and Steve in Atlanta
"Hello E&A!
This is Atlanta calling again. When Eilidh heard you were in Australia
she asked that you get "The Wiggles" autographs for her. You might not
know who The Wiggles are since you're not parents, but believe me, WE
know who they are now. I'll take them any day over Barney though!
We love the pictures - Anna, we're expecting you to do all the cooking
while you're here!
Keep on bloggin'!
XOXO,
Ch,S&E"

2002-06-18T11:17:00.000Z

G'day Mates, can you tell where we are yet?!!

That's right, we're in the land of Oz! It was a bit of a dodgy flight, the first one where I've been quite upset. We had to fly through a storm over indonesia and I was okay(doing my uncomfortable, not dangerous chant!), until the Captain came over the tannoy and told the cabin crew to sit down and buckle up. It was very bumpy and usually I feel better in turbulance cause all the stewards are still wandering around, but not last night! But we survived and arrived in Darwin very, very early this morning (4am Darwin time, 2.30 singapore time), so had no sleep all night, and had to queue for 2 hours to get through customs. It was unbelievable. Their so strict about bringing in any kind of food and wooden products. I'd bought a fan in Thailand made out of plant leaves, that cost me about 20p and it was the reason we had to queue for 2 hours. I asked if I could chuck it, but they said that because I'd brought it into the country it had to be checked by quarantine. I got to keep it though! After all that queuing the guy literally looked at it and said there's no insects so go on through! We've got a room in the darwin YHA and luckily someone had just checked out of a room so as soon as we got there we got to go for a sleep. This afternoon, we've been wandering around the town, and it's just lovely. The weather is amazing. It's the perfect type of heat. It's 32 degrees, but it's a different sort of heat than in Thailand, not nearly so sweaty! It's so laid back as well, there are only about 86,000 people that live here, as opposed to the millions in the rest of the cities we've been visiting lately! Had a look around a few shops and Ewan's decided he want's a Didgeriedoo! We were practicing our playing - I wasn't that good but I reckon Ewan's got a bit of a nack for it!

Our last couple of days in Singapore were really good fun. We went to a night safari. It was totally cool, they had all the animals in their natural environment and you go around in a tram looking for them, so you don't feel like you're just in a zoo and will definitely see the animals. When we did see them it was cool. There was this huge Rhino right up near the tram. It's kind of hard to describe, but it was a much better way to see animals than in a zoo. They also had a Mangrove walk, which was an enclosed area with Fruit Bats freely flying. I refused to go through, but Ewan came out and said it was fine. Ha! Should have known not to believe him! The bats were the size of a small dog - yorkies to give you a better visual picture! - (I'm not exaggurating - ask Ewan) and their wings, well they were very big too. And because it was night time they were all moving about. It was not a pleasant experience, and I held Ewan's hand and dragged him as fast as I could go - trying not to disturb the bats as I thought if I did that they might actually start flying at me.

On Monday, we went to Changi prison museum. It was really interesting. Changi was a notorious POW prison in singapore, and they had loads of documents at the museum relating to it, and one of the POW's had managed to hide a camera from the Japanese and had taken photos in the camp. Some were quite disturbing, but others showed the commeradery that came out of it. I've bought a book "King Rat" which was written by an ex POW, it's fiction, but based at Changi, and it's very interesting reading it having seen the pictures and knowing what the actual lay out was. You didn't get to see the actual prison, because it's still part of Singapores Prison area, and man must they have a lot of prisoners in there cause they have so many laws that you could break! You get hefty fines for all of the following: importing chewing gum into the country and obviously eating it anywhere, not using pedestrian crossings to cross the road, dropping litter, eating or drinking in their public transport system, not flushing the toilet, the list is endless! I was constantly panicing about breaking the laws. One good law they have is the seat belt one. You don't realise how safe one makes you feel until you've spent 7 weeks in countries that don't even have seat belts in the passenger seats, let alone have a law about it! The other scary thing was that on our immigration card there was a big notice saying "Death to Drug Traffikers", I was constantly checking my bag to make sure no-one had sneaked anything in my bag - you hear stories about these things - I even checked inside my wet-wipe container, just to be sure!

We spent the afternoon on a kind of theme park island called Sentosa island. It used to be a fort for the British, but after the WWII, they turned it into a theme island - like you do! you have to pay to get onto the island, but then all the attractions are scattered over it and you pay for them seperately. It's quite strange, cause it has ordinery roads and stuff. It was a bit disappointing - no Disney World anyway!

Anyway, that's about it for our adventures for the past few days. Ewan has posted some more photos below, so enjoy!

2002-06-18T11:13:00.000Z

Howdy!

The latest set of photos.........

Me Looking down at the elephants

Trecking through the forest and down a mountain outside Chiang Mai

Me on the rickety bridge. Anna went over it too, but the guy who took the picture chopped her head off!

Anna at her cooking course in Ching Mai

Anna in our pool, Ko Samui

Me in the sea, Ko Samui, as a storm approaches on our last night

Anna's impression of a crab

Lost my ball in the sharks mouth during a game of crazy golf

River city, Bangkok as the sun went down on our last night in Thailand

Anna in Singapore

Anna in Raffles having her 'Singapore Sling'!

Lost in Malaysia for a day!

2002-06-16T03:56:00.000Z

Hello there from sunny Malaysia! We're in a city across the water from Singapore called Johor Bahru.

We just thought we'd post a blog from yet another country! You just jump on a bus and then you're in another country. You have to get off and go through customs, which was quite exciting. We get two extra stamps in our passport, as we have to get it stamped again to go back into singapore - we're so greedy! However, I have to say, I'm not to impressed with the country. It whiffs a bit, and the staring thing's started up again (more Bombay than HK, and you all know how I felt about that place!). Glad we're only here for a few hours before heading back to Singapore. There also isn't that much to do, the shops are a bit rubbish and it's just a little scary. It's wierd how it's so close to Singapore and totally different.

That's all for now, hope all you daddy's out there are having a good fathers day!

2002-06-15T14:39:00.000Z

Hello Again!

We haven't written much over the last week because nothing much has happened! We spent the week in Koh Samui sunning ourselves (well actually just one day sunbathing and 5 days nursing my sunburn!). We had a really nice week, it was really relaxing, with no distractions we even avoided getting a TV. We regreted it later when we had to put up with each others conversation for 6 whole days! No only kidding. I got to watch all the world cup I wanted to by the pool or in the town in the bars there. Anna even got excited about the world cup when England won against Argentina (and still is) - allthough that is maybe more to do with David Beckham! The trip back to Bangkok wasn't so relaxing though. It took 26 hours on a combination of sangthaew, boat, bus, train, and the bus again. We were woken at 5am on our sleeper to be told that we had to get off and make the rest of the journey to Bangkok by bus. The train infront of ours hit a car on the line and de-railed. We're still not entirely sure what happened, because in all the hundreds of shops in Bangkok airport, not one sold a Thai newspaper! But we didn't see anything about it on TV, so assumed anyone at home wouldn't have known about it and wouldn't be worried. When we arrived back in Bangkok we jumped into a taxi and we managed to get him to use his meter - which is unusual in Bangkok - to take us to our guest house (which we picked because it was close to the train station). But he took us on a very round about way (a 25 minute drive rather than a 5 minute one!) which cost double what it should have done - and he didn't even drop us off at our guesthouse! So I went a bit mad at this guy and only gave him a fraction of the fare, which he wasn't too pleased about, but we just walked away. When we wandered around and finally found the place it turned out to be some kind of chinese 'love motel', we went up the stairs and a girl came out of her room just wearing her bra and pants - obviously expecting a customer! This prepared us for the rest of our evening. We went down to the famous Pathpong area - let's just say it's what Bangkok is most famous for, if you know what I mean! We kind of expected it to be quite funny, but in reality it was a bit sad really. But there was a good night bazaar which gave everyone a chance to oggle at the girls, while pretending to just be there to pick up fake goods!
Anyway we're in Singapore now, and have blown 30 quid on 3 drinks each. One of them was a Singapore Sling which was invented by a barman at Raffles - so Anna made us go to Raffles itself to taste one. Anna thought it was worth it as she got to soak up the 'colonial atmosphere'. However, I wasn't all that impressed at having to fork out 6 quid for a bottle of Corona, but at least Anna enjoyed her Singapore Sling! We plan to go to Malaysia tomorrow - it's only an hour away on the bus - and we want another stamp on our passport!

Happy Fathers day Dad! (and to Anna's Dad from Anna!)

2002-06-12T04:29:00.000Z

Hi there, Just stashing our US travel itinery on the blog - makes facinating reading!

____________________________________________________________________

30 July Los Angeles - Las Vegas Bus Number 8534
09.45 15.30 LAX - LVS
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31 July Las Vegas - Needles Bus Number 5004
21.20 00.45 LVS - NDL
____________________________________________________________________

1 August Needles - Flagstaff Train Number
01.22 05.10 - FLG
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2 August Flagstaff - Albuquerque Train Number 4
05.15 12.29 FLG - ABQ
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3 August Albuquerque - El Paso Bus Number 8204
16.05 21.35 ABQ - ELP
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5 August El Paso - New Orleans Train Number 2
16.11 20.30(on 6th) ELP - NOL
____________________________________________________________________

9 August New Orleans - Orlando Train Number 2
22.30 20.45(on 10th) NOL - ORL
____________________________________________________________________
***************************************************************
17 August Orlando - Atlanta Bus Number 1120
12.30 21.00 (Greyhound)
****************************************************************

21 August Atlanta - Washington, D.C. Train Number 20
20.06 09.50 (on the 22nd) ATL - WAS
____________________________________________________________________

25 August Washington - New York City Train Number
11.05 14.05 WAS - NYC
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28 August New York City - Niagra (Ontario) Train Number
07.15 16.05 NYC - NFS
____________________________________________________________________

2002-06-08T05:04:00.000Z

Well, after two long days travelling, we finally arrived on our paradise island! It's absolutely gorgeous. We were dropped off on the beach, so while Ewan sat looking after the bags, I went off to find a place to stay. It was cool, there are so many places right along the beach, my main problem was trying to find the reception area! We've got a nice place with a pool overlooking the seaside. It's a bit more expensive than we've been getting used to, but everything here is pretty expensive. I suppose it'll break us in gently to the prices we're going to have to pay when we get to australia and the US. We're just planning on doing a bit of relaxing for the next week. I've never seen a beach as beautiful and its so much quieter than I thought it would be. I totally expected it to be crammed with tourists, but it's really quiet. We could have just about any spot on the beach we wanted. We're a bit north of the really touristy bit, but still within walking distance, so that we can go into "the strip" at night, but be far enough away when we get home that it doesn't keep us awake. We spent yesterday by the pool, and both have sunburn to prove it, Ewan's worse than mine (well I did tell him not to use factor 6!!) So today, we're in to look around the shops (not buy anything hopefullly!) and avoiding the beach and pool til tomorrow, when hopefully our red bits won't be as red as they are today! Don't expect to hear from us for a while since we won't have anything to write about - we're not planning on doing anything - hooray!

2002-06-03T08:45:00.000Z

Hello there!

Hope you all liked the photos which should appear below, the elephant one keeps flashing just now - so you all may be receiving subliminal messages of elephants! The Hong Kong one looks like we've just been cut and pasted on!

We've been having a lovely time here in Chiang Mai, it's much more relaxed than Bangkok, less commercial and built up, with some gorgeous countryside around and about. The train journey from Bangkok was really good. I had the best nights sleep I'd had in ages - probably since the air conditioning didn't make much noise, which it seems to do everywhere else! It's facinating watching all the little villages go past outside the window. We've found a really nice little guest house in the centre of the city called the rendevous guest house (sound's a bit like a Thai brothel doesn't it?!). It has the added bonus of cable TV, which means I get to know what's going on in the world and watch the world cup! Not that we're here to watch TV all the time though! It's 190 Baht each a night, (about 3 quid). We've had a relaxing few days, eating good food and just sort of wandering around. On Saturday we sorted out our tour and went on a little boat trip up the river (yes another boat!!!) which was nice until the thunder and lightening came out to play! It was quite pleasureable to be on a boat that didn't travel at the speed of sound! The night bazaar here is fantastic - we went on both the first two nights. Counterfit goods rule over here, I got a pair of Oakley sunglasses for about 2 pounds 50, and nearly bought a Rolex watch for about a tenner! Yesterday we went on a good trek in the mountains just outside Chiang Mai. We started at an elephant camp where we were taken by elephant to a hill tribe to meet some local people. Anna was a bit scared again, as she wasn't convinced the elephant was looking where it was going, with big drops down on her side! You can see her in the photo hanging on for dear life! He kept stopping to eat branches and blowing up water at us, but it was a really good experience. Anna me and the elephant all seemed to have a good time. They're very intelligent creatures, and very friendly. Allthough one of the elephants nearly had my camera for lunch! We had mixed feelings about the tribal village. It seemed a bit too much like it was geared towards tourists, with all the locals selling gifts from stalls. But it was good to see the houses they lived in and hear about their history. Anna bought two bracelets and a scarf from the second village, to support them though. The real shame was that there was so much litter around, obviously left by tourists in the past. Anyway, we stopped and had lunch and then went to a waterfall to go swimming, allthough Anna and I didn't go in because we had done it in Kanchinaburi, and we knew that we were going to get wet later on, at the bamboo rafting. The rafting was ace! I got to stand up at the back of this bamboo raft and help steer it down the river through the forest! I stayed on with the guy who was steering at the front while everyone else got off through the rapids. I know - I'm so brave!! Ha ha ha. One of the other raft drivers jumped off the raft when we saw a snake on top of the water. He just grabbed it and started beating it off a rock until it was dead!!!! Then he started throwing it at people on the rafts! Anna wasn't liking it at all! We ended up soaked through by the end. We wouldn't have got all that wet if there hadn't been all these kids in the river splashing us as we went past every 50 yards or so though!, but the raft driver just brought out the snake to get them back! It was great fun. Today has been quite good as well. Anna's been away all day on a Thai cookery course, and I've been surfing the internet, and drinking beer while watching the football in a local bar! Now thats my idea of a good time!!!

Anyway
Cherio for now

2002-06-03T04:50:00.000Z

Hello from Chiang Mai!

Just posting a selection of our latest photos.

Me and Anna in Hong Kong

Anna on the buffet boat during our tour of Bangkok

Anna and I at the Grand Palace in Bangkok

On the Train to Kanchinaburi

Anna and I on a long boat - taken at about 60 miles an hour!

Anna on the Bridge over the River Kwai

Walking through a waterfall in Erawan National Park, Kanchinaburi Province

Sliding down one of the waterfalls in Erawan National Park, Kanchinaburi Province!

Going for a swim with our fellow travellers

Watch out! there's another one behind you!

Anna on the death railway built by allied POW's during WWII, Kanchinaburi Province

What do you mean 'there's a train's coming'?

An elephant treck through the jungle just outside Chiang Mai

2002-05-31T22:20:00.000Z

Home Base Calling - I was asked if 'outsiders' can post on the Blog - and yes you can through 'home base' (simply e-mail your message to me at andrew@mcleman.net and I will post it) - the first one is from Chase and Steve in Atlanta who are eagerly anticipating their visit from 'the bloggers' mid August.
"Hello E&A!
This is Atlanta calling. We received your communiqués from the Taj Mahal & Hong Kong. Thank you so much - keep them coming.

We can't wait for you to get here. (Ewan, Phil's especially looking forward to seeing you!) Until then, have a splendid time! We'll be following you on the blog.

XOXO,
Ch,S&E "

2002-05-30T10:13:00.000Z

Hello everybody! It's been a while since we last updated you, so we thought we'd better tell you what we've been doing for the past few days! It's been pretty amazing. We took a train to Kanchanaburi on Monday, it only cost us 40p, although it was 3rd class, and we had to get out and cross the tracks to change trains (just doesn't happen like that with British Rail!), but nice none the less. I think Kanchanaburi must the smallest town I've been in since I left Ellon, so it was quite nice to be somewhere wee again. On Tuesday we went to some museums about the POW camps up there and the railway, and then we went to the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was very wierd seeing it as I've seen it on a few tv programs. It's quite rickety, so although you could walk over it, I chose not to - surprise! I got about a third of the way when one of the planks squeeked really loud and I ran back! Ewan walked right over though and took some pictures, so I'll see what it was like eventually! So I didn't see any of the original bridge as the side I was on was replaced when it was bombed. But the first bridge was built of wood and we went to see the remains of it. Then we took a long boat ride down the river which was really good fun. We were taken to this cave which I found really creepy anyway (and nearly gave myself an aneurism running up the steps to get out of it), but when we got back I was reading about it in the lonely planet and it was where a British Backpacker was murdered 5 years ago by a drug addicted buddhist monk. I was so glad I didn't know that at the time! Plus, another thing I didn't like was that the monks at the door gave us these bracelet things for making a donation, but there not allowed to touch women, so he just kind of threw it at me, which made me feel like a bit of a leper!! So that was our first day. The second was just too cool. I think it was my favourite day so far. We paid to go on a tour thing to a place called Erawan Falls and the Tiger Temple. It was really good cause there were a few other travelling people with us. The falls were just beautiful. There are seven levels of waterfall and I really have never seen anything so pretty before. It was quite a hike though, but well worth it, especially since we got to swim in the waterfalls. I only swam in level 4 cause there were big fish in all the other pools that nibbled you. Ewan braved the fish in level 3 as well, just so he could go down the rock slide! We then got on the train at a station called Nam Tok, this is the only stretch of railway in Thailand that is still the original tracks built by the prisoners of war. It was very strange as the surrounding were just gorgeous, and it's hard to imagine the suffering that must have happened in such amazing countryside. We got out at the station before the famous wooden bridge round a rock face. I can't believe they still use it as it totally doesn't look safe, especially after reading an article in one of the museums about how the POW's did their best to make it unsafe! Had a little walk along that, but didn't get very far, it was more scary than the river Kwai bridge! We were then taken by van to the Tiger Temple. Here, budhist monks are looking after tigers that were being kept as pets until they got too big for the owners to look after. The tigers are tame (well, as tame as tigers get!), so you can go up and pet them. I was a bit dubious - when animals attack came to mind again! - but since a few people had done it and survived, I thought it would be worth it for the photo, and maybe I would get to be on "when animals attack"! The scariest thing is that there were 4 tigers, with no lead or anything on, just lying about. There was a monk for each tiger, but these monks are pretty scrawny looking and I'm sure if one of the tigers took a liking to you, there wouldn't be much they could do! They were very impressive though and the monks weren't scared at all, they have Buddha protecting them I suppose! Although one of them had obviously done something to upset buddha a few months back, he was eaten by one of the tigers!

We're back in Bangkok now, filling in time til our train to Chiang Mai. Been back to Ewan's tailor, to have his fitting. The suits are really nice, but he's having a few alterations, plus he's been pursuaded to take another shirt, the shirts were very well made.

So until Chiang Mai, bye, bye.

2002-05-26T14:13:00.000Z

Got a spare few minutes, so thought I'd update you all on our day today. It's been, interesting! We planned to go to this safari park that the Lonely Planet recommended, but it was quite far out of bangkok, and involved buses and taxis. But being the adventurous sorts, we decided we'd do it. Got on a bus to Minburi, when we realised, we wouldn't actually know when we got to minburi as we had no idea where, or how far away it was. So after a few panics, got off where we thought was Minburi and got a Taxi to take us to the safari park. Our first shock was the price. The LP had said it would be 5 pounds each, it was 10. Our second shock came when the taxi drove into the park, and we realised it was taking us on the safari! We'd planned on getting a bus round (the park does this for free) and thought that the taxi was taking us to the main entrance. By the time we realised, we were in amongst the animals and weren't allowed to get out of the car! Didn't really enjoy the safari, as the whole time we were concerned about how much it was going to cost us, but the taxi driver seemed to be enjoying himself!! There was also a kind of theme park inside, but it really wasn't very nice. The had orungatans dressed up and were making them box, they had baby tigers that were obviously not happy, out to have their photos taken with the public and it was just a bit distressing. We were only there for about half an hour and then we had the problem of getting back! Our taxi driver didn't speak english and for some strange reason decided to drop us in the car park of Tescos (they have that out here too!), when we'd asked to go to the bus stop. Wandered around til we eventually decided we'd have to get another taxi, he spoke english thank god, and took us to the bus stop. So not a very productive day all in all! Never mind. We're off to Kanchanaburi tomorrow. Until then, goodbye!

2002-05-25T13:26:00.000Z

Hello, Well this is the first blog I've written in ages. We're really liking Bangkok. It's not how I expected it to be at all. Far more westernised. The Starbucks and McDonalds culture rules over here unfortunately, but the shopping and the food is great. Thai food is a lot easier to eat every day. Having curry for every meal was getting a bit too much. It's very cheap as well. We've had a fun couple of days. Yesterday we went to see some golden Budah's, the Grand Palace and did some walking around the old part of the city. Today we went to a snake farm and got a demonstration of them milking the snakes for venom. We were in the front row, when they were showing them to us, but Anna moved further back after a while - she said she had seen too many episodes of "when animals attack"
Then we went to a massive market on the outskirts of the city. We couldn't believe the prices of stuff. I got a new pair of shorts, a T-shirt and a hat, while Anna got a pair of trowsers, a top and a pair of sandals. In total, including lunch we spent 20 quid! Allthough we ruined all that by going to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner tonight!

I also got measured up for a couple of suits today, which I'll get made up this week. I've got to go back for a second fitting on thursday when we come back from Kanchinaburi - so we're a bit over budget now! Oh well, maybe the suits will pay for themselves when they get me a good job when I come home!

Thats all for now

Bye Bye

2002-05-23T14:41:00.000Z

Hello from the land of Smiles and Ladyboys!

We made it here safely, another smooth flight from Cathay Pacific, so my fears are easing a bit! We've got a nice room in a guesthouse for 4 pounds each a night - bargain! Spent today organising our train trips to Chiang Mai and Ko Samui, and then we went on a river cruise. We thought it was a bit pricey at 8 poounds until we got on the boat and realised you got free food and drink for the whole trip - hooray! Unfortunatey we'd just had a big lunch, which by the way, was totally ace. The menu showed a picture of it and it was a plate of raw meat, yum, yum! But then we realised you BBQed it yourself at the table - Dad, you would have been in BBQ heaven!! They put charcoal in the middle of the table and you cooked all the meat on it. It was very exciting and yummy. Apart from that, we've just been having a wander and deciding what to do during our next few days here. Bangkok is a very nice place - definately more HK than Bombay!! There's even a Boots the Chemist which is just too cool, better than Marks and Sparks I think! It's much more cosmopolitan and westernised than I expected it to be, although it's really very polluted - but still no sign of the Black Bogies yet so it can't be that bad!!

That's it for now. We'll update you all on Bangkok before we leave for Kanchanaburi on Monday. Byeeee.

2002-05-21T07:06:00.000Z

Hello, it's me again !

Well, we're almost at the end of Hong Kong, we leave for Bangkok tomorrow. Have had a really nice few days and it's been good to get back to civilisation again! We were in Aberdeen yesterday, Aberdeen, Hong Kong that is! It's a really nice place with a huge harbour. We took a ride on a Sampan, which is like a deep sided short boat, up and down the harbour which was cool. Had lunch on a floating restaurant (prices were a bit more reasonable than the night before!). The food was interesting since the waitress didn't speak english and just kept handing us these steamed dim sum things. We had to judge whether it was edible just be looking at it - quite hard and there were a few that I had to try my hardest not to spit out! God knows what they were! Eating out here hasn't really been that pleasurable an experience. It's really quite stressful and I HATE using chopsticks - mainly because I just can't and feel incredibly stupid trying. We had noodles for lunch today, should have known that was a mistake! I'm convinced the whole restaurant was laughing at me! And the 45 pound meal a couple of nights ago - Ewan's ended up down the toilet, his stomach obviously can't cope with expensive food anymore, or maybe the shock was just too great!!

Ewan's a bit upset cause we didn't realise Scotland were playing in Hong Kong last night. We could have gone along and supported them, maybe they would have won - probably not! They're also playing tomorrow but we're away in the morning, the frustration! I know I'm quite upset!

We've spent today wandering round the shopping centres, the buildings are far more impressive than the shops in them. Went to Marks and Sparks, just to make me feel even more at home. Tonight we're going up the Peak again to see the views at night. Hopefully it won't be too cloudy and we'll be able to see something.

2002-05-21T07:01:00.000Z

Hi There!

Here's some photos from Hong Kong - Aghh, the wonders of modern technology!

On a Junk Boat in Aberdeen

Ewan at the Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen, HK.

From the Peak on Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong Island at night

A Tram Downdown

On The Subway

2002-05-20T20:15:00.000Z

Home Base calling - attempting to put in some of the India Photos that Ewan e-mailed back today from Hong Kong. we wil probably create a photos page if this dosen't work!

Ewan and Anna at the Taj Mahal

Abbandoned City

Anna with Naheim (their driver in Jaipur)

The BIG wheel!!!

Delhi Red Fort

Here goes!

2002-05-19T14:29:00.000Z

Hello there everyone,

Well, we've made it to Hong Kong, hooray! When we arrived in the Airport I realised just how stressed out I was in India. HK felt so relaxed it was unbelievable. Most people have said that when you're in India you don't appreciate it as much as when you leave. I think for me it was the opposite! I did like it, but it was just getting a bit much as you probably gathered from Ewan's last post. And we're not being stared at, there are no rickshaw drivers hassling you, haven't had one begger demanding money from me and it smells lovely! Hong Kong is totally ace. It's really quite like britain, not surprisingly I suppose. We got on a bus from the airport and the road signs were the same as the UK, the roads are the same (and people drive normally!) and I just felt quite at home. We found this really nice place to stay that's not too expensive. It's flats that have been done up to be like hotel rooms. They've just newly been done I think, so they're really nice.

We just did a bit of walking around yesterday to try and get our bearings. We did go across in the Star Ferry which was cool, so we saw the Hong Kong skyline and it is so impressive. We were saying that it's almost as impressive as the Taj Mahal, but in a totally different way. Today we went up the peak. We were supposed to be going on the tram, but we got on the wrong bus that took us right to the top. It was very scary. I'd insisted that we sit at the front of the double decker bit (I thought it would be good to see Hong Kong!) and we were going up these tiny winding roads with sheer drops to the side! It was worth it though, the views were amazing and they've got a mini city up there. We got the tram down and it's unbelievable. It's so steep and it's not really angled to stop you feeling how steep it is. The seats face backwards so you don't fall forwards. We then went to that famous Hong Kong attraction - the cinema, to see Star Wars! Ewan saw it being advertised on a big screen, and the cinema was just underneath. Luckily, it hadn't been dubbed into Cantonese! We've just had dinner, and Ewan had a hairy fit when we got the bill. It was 45 pounds - we've only been paying about 6 pounds for the two of us in India! So we're on McDonalds from now on!

We really feel like we're traveling now. Before it was just like a holiday. Hong Kong couldn't be any more different from India if it tried, which is really nice and refreshing. Also it's only about 27 degrees which feels so incredibly nice. It's good to go out and not be instantly covered in sweat! We got some of our photos back, and in most of them we're both absolutely dripping - very attractive! The only problem is that it's raining, but we really don't mind after coming from the heat of India. Anyway, better go and see if Ewans recovered a bit from the shock of our dinner bill!

Anna

2002-05-17T16:41:00.000Z

Hello All!

Well, this will be the last entry from India, as we fly off to Hong Kong in a few hours. We're gonna be sad to leave in many ways, but glad to get away at the same time. This is where I do the whole reflection on India thing!

This is a country full of contrasts. The very rich and the very poor; the staggering buildings and the descolate slums; some very kind, friendly people and others who'll do anything to con you.

It is a really nice place, but you have to have your wits about you.
Mumbai (Bombay) was probably a mistake, and the advice I would have to anyone travelling to India would be to not start your trip there - or infact ever go! It's so polluted it gave us black bogies! You have to be prepared for what you're going to experience. We weren't, and it was a bit too much of a shock. We spoke to an Indian guy in Agra who felt exactly the same the first time he went there, so it's not just because we're foreign!

But boy, do we feel foreign here!!!!

One of the first things that made us uncomfortable was the fact that everyone stared at us. I suppose being very white did make us very conspicuous, but it wasn't just glances, it was staring for minutes on end - and not just one or two people - loads of them! Anna got a lot more attention than me, and she felt the most uncomfortable because the streets are filled with men - with hardly any women at all.

Another thing we noticed about being white was the fact that we attracted beggars, not to mention every street seller and rickshaw driver in the land! After two weeks, the hassling wears you down, which I think is how we feel just now. The problem is that now we must come across as being very rude - even to people who are genuinly nice. I'm sad to say that I think you have to take the attitude of not being able to trust any one.

It's against both Anna and I's nature though so it's been a bit strange.

I don't think we appreciated how nice our rickshaw driver Naheim was in Jaipur until our bad experiences here in Delhi and Agra. He's got our e-mail addresses and wants us to keep in touch - he even gave us both a rose before we left!

The bad experiences by the way are drivers trying to take you to other hotels, restaurants and shops where they get a commission (one which you are paying for) instead of where you want to go. In Delhi a driver took us to a 'museum' which in actual fact turned out to be a department store! We learnt that instead of just going along with it, we had to be firm. 'You only go look, no pressure to buy' - but you can guarantee there will be lots of pressure. Anna was ready to buy a carpet for goodness sake!!! - Although I have to say we got the price down from over 300 quid to just 110 - so the tip here is to say it's too expensive, and you've already spent loads of money in other shops etc. It's also a good idea to tell the driver this too, and don't say it's your first night in India - better tell them it's your last. Don't pay full price for stuff - bargain away!

We did buy quite a lot of stuff - well Anna did! Everything from getting clothes made to measure to a marble elephant! The latter when Anna conveniently didn't have her Credit Card!!!!!!!

But we don't feel bad about buying stuff here, because our living expenses have been so cheap. The hotel we stayed at in Agra was just 480Rs per room per night (about 3 pounds 50 each) and even here in Delhi its only 750Rs. The hotel is really good. It's called Hotel Ajanta and it's really close to the train station. They have a brilliant restaurant, Internet Cafe, Money change and travel agency.
What more could a pair of travellers need?

Anyway, before I go there's a few hints and tips both to remind myself for future trips and for anyone else visiting India.

- Make sure you get a hold of a Lonely Planet guide. It's been like a bible to us.

-Keep your hands clean. The money here is grotty; my dad sent me an article describing how scientists had examined hundreds of Indian bank notes and found them to be filled with bacteria - enough to cause things as serious as Typhoid! So wet wipes should be taken everywhere.
We seem to have avoided becoming ill so far - touch wood.

-Take an emergency few squares of toilet paper in your back pocket as a large number of toilets only have a little jug to use in conjuction with your left hand!
NB - this is also why Indians frown on people eating with their left hand.

-Avoid the roads - take a train! There are an average of 6 deaths every day in Delhi alone from car accidents (not surprising really)and we thought we were gonners a few times during our stay.

-Visit during their winter time (september till March). It's just too hot during the summer. I think we would have enjoyed the sights more if we weren't so hot. The only upside is that everything is a bit cheaper out of season, and none of the best hotels are booked up.

So, would we come back?

YES!

I think we'll definitely go back to Jaipur. It was such a nice place - much more relaxed than elsewhere. I think though that we'll go to stay in the Rambaugh Palace - a magnificent hotel - unbelievably exclusive, where we went for drinks one night. Naheim said when we come back he'll show us all of Rajastan, when he buys a taxi!

And anyway, Anna will need to come back to buy a carpet!

Thats all from India. Roll on Hong Kong!

2002-05-17T09:09:00.000Z

Hello!

The technical glitches continue. Our blogs haven't been getting published on the website, so this isn't as up to date as we thought. Oh well, just have to re-write it all.

We've had an amazing four days. The train trip to Delhi was interesting. Our train was delayed because there were people running on the roof! I really like Delhi though. It's not nearly as scary as Bombay, but that's maybe because i'm a bit more used to India now. It's major plus point is that it doesn't smell! we did a whistle stop tour of all the sights in Delhi on tuesday. I was glad we did it, but we left at 11am and we were out til 5pm. It was about 47 degrees at the hottest times and none of the sights were air conditioned since most of them are old buildings! We came back early as we were both getting exhausted and it just wasn't worth it. We also had to keep taking our shoes off for mosques and things and the ground was burning - I got heat blisters on my feet! Our room is air conditioned, but, Delhi is experienceing power shortages at the moment because of the demand for electricity and the first things to go off are the ACs (the rest of the electricity has been going on and off too, lucky for our magnalites!) So our rooms not freezing like i would like it to be. It was even worse in Agra, our room was like an oven and the AC didn't work for most of the time we were there. However we suspect that when we went out, and during the night, hotel staff flicked the trip switch outside our room to turn the AC off to save electricity. After a day in Delhi, we travelled on the express train to Agra. We were most impressed by the service. We were served breakfast and drinks which was good, and arrived at 8am (the train only took 2 hours). That day we went to the Red Fort. The guy who built the Taj for his wife was imprisoned in the fort by his son for emptying the state treasury to build the taj. He didn't mind being imprisoned,as long as he had a view of the Taj Mahal from his windows. It was incredible view from the fort and I was quite glad we did that first. the next day we got up at 5am to go and visit the Taj itself - it was so worth it. I thought it might be a bit disapointing but it totally wasn't. It's all walled in so you can't see it until you go through the archway and it just doesn't look real. We took loads of pictures and because we were there first, there were no tourists in them. When you go up close theres all these semi precious stones inlaid in the marble - it's just totally amazing. We were taken to a marble shop and the guy said he was descended from the people who did the cutting in the taj. Wasn't sure whether to believe him but he seemed really nice and I bought a marble elephent inlaid with stones - it's so nice. Then we went to this place called Fatepur Sikri. It was amazing too. It was the Royal City of Akbar the great for only 16 years, 450 years ago, because there was a very bad water supply to it, so it was abandonned. It was like a ghost town and absolutely incredible. It was so elaborately built and decorative. Getting there wasn't fun though - its 40km from Agra and we booked an Air Conditioned taxi. The AC barely worked, they kept pulling over and lifting up the bonnet and insisting everything was fine, and they started it witht the wires under the dash board. And the driving, my god, it was so scary. Ewan eventually asked if he could be a bit more careful cause we were both nervous wrecks. We had a bit of an arguement with them over the fare - we didn't see why we should pay the extra for an AC taxi and not get one!, and told them we didn't want to use them for the rest of the day. I think we'll both be quite happy to leave India. We've had a really great time, but we're both getting sick of the harrassment we get here. It's totally relentless, i don't know what's worse, from the beggers or the people trying to sell you things. And the constant staring is really starting to irritate me as well. Anyway, time to go. Hope this works!
Anna

2002-05-13T08:56:00.000Z

we've ben experiencing a few technical difficulties! This was actually posted on the 13th.

Well, we're on our way to Delhi tonight - aahhh! We couldn't get train tickets to Agra as its fully booked for the next week, so, rather than catch the bus (we've had far too much experience on Indian roads to do that!) we decided to head for Delhi first. So if I hate it there, we can spend the rest of our time in Agra! I really like Jaipur though. We've had a brilliant week here, and our rickshaw driver even wanted our address to send us a postcard - how sweet. He's taken us loads of places this week. We saw some gorgous views from two forts built in the hills around Jaipur. He took us to the top in his rickshaw as the previous day, we'd walked up a big hill to a place called the Monkey temple and I was sick - a mixture of the heat, the hike and drinking my water to fast. Since then, he won't let me walk anywhere! A couple of nights ago he took us to "this place, you will never forget". He described it as a beautiful restaurant with waterfalls and green grass where only rich business men go. What it was, in fact, was a very bad Indian sort of disneyland! They had the "very big, giant wheel", which looked like a small boy had built it with his mechano set and was only about 1 foot higher than me, the "very dark cave", which was a big hole in the ground that had an entrance and exit at either end, and the river boat ride, which was up a tiny waterway on a pedalo!! It was worth it just for the laugh, we took loads of pictures. the only really scary bit was coming home. It was 22km out of Jaipur on a very dark road with loads of traffic coming the other way. Ewan was wetting himself and I was just laughing hysterically, especially when we ended up on the opposite carriage way to avoid a cow in the middle of the road! It was an experience and we were very glad to get back to our hotel safely. I've had my dose of Delhi Belly, so yesterday was spent in the room, or on the toilet which was nice! But I seem to have recovered slightly today, so hopefully the 5 hour trip to Delhi won't be to horrible. Anyway, better say goodbye for now. We haven't been able to send many e-mails as the connections here are very slow and Ewan says to say we aren't getting a signal on the phone here either

2002-05-07T09:24:00.000Z

Hello All!

Jaipur is really nice. We've just kinda being taking it easy for the last few days. The people here are very kind. India takes a bit of getting used to though. As virtually the only westerners in this city we get stared at all the time - with Anna getting lots of attention from Indian men - something she doesn't like very much!

It's amazing how you get used to such busy streets - tearing past Cows and Camels in a tiny little rickshaw. The rickshaw thing is a bit scary though. I think the technique is simply seeing a space, beeping your horn, and driving into it (And Anna thought she was scared of flying !!! - you should see her face when we avoid cars, busses, and walls by inches!) - I can't say it's the safest form of transport I've ever been on either though.

It's low season here just now (because it's so hot) so tourists are in short supply, so the locals seem to want to fight over our business like drivers running accross roads to get us to go with them. We now have a rickshaw driver called Naiheim who's being taking us everywhere we want to go around the city. He's become our guide, telling us what to see, and do and where to eat. We think after yesterday that he's on a commission from some of these places though, but he's very nice, and we can't have any complaints about the places we've been. We're getting great curry meals at top restaurants for dirt cheap, and our driver only costs a few quid per day. We went to see one of the palaces and the observatory yesterday in Old Jaipur, but got exhauseted quite quickly, came back for a siesta and went back out shopping later on.

It's so hot here just now though. I'm used to spending my days in a chill in safeway kept at 5 degC all day - and now I'm in the mid 40's!!!. Allthough the best news is that it's meant to be hotter in Delhi - where we're going next week! Hurah!

We'll be staying here until monday, when we get the train to Agra (for the Taj Mahal) and go to Delhi on Wednesday.

Until the next time, take care everybody,

Ewan

2002-05-05T21:29:00.000Z

Hi Team - Home base calling!
Here is a couple of useful links for you + visitors?
1. Currency converter
2. Time Zone Converter

Andrew

2002-05-04T12:35:00.000Z

Actually posted by Anna - like Ewan would have got us upgraded to 1st class by crying!!

Well, where should I start. I'll mention the fact that we got upgraded to 1st class by British Ariways, they took pity on me as i was in such a state and put us in first class with about 45" of leg room so I didn't have to worry about DVT`s! Arrived in Bombay, and it did't seem too bad - until you actually left the airport, when it seemed totally horrific! We were instantly hassled by beggers, were taken to our hotel in an ancient juddery bus, driven down the road at horrible speeds and just about had 3 head on collisions. Then we arrived at the hotel which inside was ok, but on the outside looked horrible and was right in the middle of what seemed to be some kind of indian shanti town! So we packed up our bags to get somewhere else to stay, but after experiencing Central Bombay, I decided i couldn't stay anymore - oh, plus Ewan abondoned me at a random station on the outskirts of Bombay, alone with no passport, no tickets, no money or anything (he was carrying it all!). What happened was that the first stop we got on at, Ewan got into the ladies car (unknowingly - apparently this is a real indian no-no) so they told he had to change at the next stop. Next stop, Ewan and me got out to get into the mixed car, but these trains don't stop for very long and Ewan managed to get in but I couldn't. So was v. scared and getting stared at lots. Got the next train and luckily Ewan was standing where my carriage stopped, so that was a relief. Anyway, it pretty much got worse after that. Our train arrived in bombay at 1250 so it was boiling hot and we were carrying our big back packs. Sought solice in the British Airways room, because we couldnt find the tourist train ticket counter and noone could tell us how to get there. Tried to change flight out of India to asap, unfortunately it's there holiday season and everyone wants to leave - what a surprise! So we found the tourist ticket office, and booked ourselves on the next train to Jaipur. It was a really nice train, it took 17 and a half hours, but i slept really well on it and it was so interesting watching the indian landscape go by. We were in a compartment with a nice indian family who we talked to a bit but they didn't speak that good english. Arrived in Jaipur, and it's a lot nicer than bombay. Our hotel is lovely - swimming pool and all mod cons for a meer fifteen pound a room. It's got really nice gardens and there's even classical music playing in the background! (www.meghniwas.com if you want to look it up) I think we're going to spend a week here and relax to get used to the heat, apparently it'll be a lot hotter in delhi, CNN said it could rise to 46 degrees C! We're off to buy a camera tomorrow as Ewan's "amazing" one is broken - his one job! What a plonker! That's about all for now. Oh did i mention that Bombay absolutely stank!

2002-05-01T13:56:00.000Z

Hello from London!

Not done much yet, just some shopping, oh, and Anna's done some crying!

She says she's already looking forward to coming home!

We met up with Lyndsey D. this morning and will stay there tonight. The flight is at about 10 tomorrow morning, so we'll be up bright and early for that one.

Next stop Mumbai - I'll tell you what it's like when we get there.

2002-05-01T09:36:00.000Z

This blog is composed by Ewan McLeman from Mid Calder, near Edinburgh and Anna McKerchar from Ellon, near Aberdeen, Scotland.

We're taking the chance to go see the world before we settle down with proper jobs. The purpose is to keep everyone posted about what we're doing.

You can contact us while we are away at ewanmcleman@hotmail.com or annamckerchar@hotmail.com

Happy Reading!

www.mcleman.org + www.ewanmcleman.com

2002-05-01T00:08:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to Ewan and Anna's World Tour Blog!

I'm starting to get excited now! ... Bye bye Safeway, Hello World!

Tonight, Anna and I are getting the sleeper to London. Our first flight to Mumbai leaves on Thursday morning.

I've still got all my packing to do, so I had better get on with it.

Make sure you come back soon!