Ross Around the World

New Zealand´s Finest

2006-05-20T15:37:00.000+01:00

Slight delay in updating my blog, but Im back on it again now. My previous attempt to write up my NZ experiences took about an hour but was wiped when a bloke walked into the internet cafe I was using and tripped over my PC cable...I cried.

Anyway, here´s an abridged version of memorable events from New Zealand. It really is a great country, and with a bottomless wallet you can have a lot of fun here. I managed to overspend dramatically, but loved every moment of the country, except for maybe some of Auckland, which was a bit dull. If you've been to NZ before, you´ve probably done all of the below as well, as there is a very well trodden path. Still, I loved it all.

(Not) Swimming with Dolphins - Went back to Bay of Islands about 10yrs after my original quest to swim with dolphins had failed. To prove a point about 50 of them turned up this time. However, they had calves with them so we weren't allowed to swim...so it still remains an unfulfilled dream.

Skydiving Lake Taupo - Turned out to be another stunning highlight of my trip. The views from 15,000ft were amazing, although it was all over in the blink of an eye. Still, I have a DVD if anyone wants to see me desperately try to hang on to (and eventually lose) my sandal with my toes whilst plunging though the air incredibly quickly..

Trekking across the mountains - Managed 2 decent treks whilst I was in NZ. One, the Tarronga, through volcanic landscapes in the North, and the other, the Kepler Track, a condensed 2 day trek through the mountains in the South Island...very Lord of the Rings

Being blown over in Wellington - Spent a few days hanging out with Jane, a friend from my old job. Definitely the best host around. Together we visited most of the bars in town. Great Fun!

Buying my very first car - I bought Ralph, a 1986 Honda Prelude (with twin exhaust and electric sunroof) from a dodgy bloke round the back of a garage and we spent 20 something wicked days crusing around the south island together, burning off tractors at traffic lights and generally looking about as cool as you can in a 20yr old motor

Cramponing the Franz Joseph Glacier - Spent a day up in the mountains weaving our way under, over, through and in between miles and miles of piercingly blue ice. Very odd, but very cool

Canyon Swinging - Jumping of a perch (backwards) and freefalling for 60 metres, then swinging across a huge canyon in Queesntown. Probably one of the scariest things Ive ever done, but so enjoyble I went back for more (sideways and hanging upside down). I am suitable petrified in the photo below.

Kayaking Doubtful sound with some dolphins - Did a 3 day kayaking trip into one of the most remote places Ive been to in a long time. Dramatic fjordlands, dense tree-lined mountains and crystal clear waters. Apparently they filmed King Kong near there. Didnt see any giant gorillas, but did spend time kayaking with a school of dolphins who decided to join us for a whole day swimming alongside us, jumping out of the water, clicking at us and generally showing off.. Its a dolphins life.

Losing my very first car - Mossburn, sheep grazing country, nowheresville. A rainy day and a sad end to a great partnership. Ralphy went down in a blaze of glory, well, blaze of smoke, when his engine blew up mid journey. The mechanic muttered the words "head gastket" and I knew it was curtains. After drowning my sorrows in the local Inn with the money I got for Ralphy´s tyres (its what he would have wanted) I hitched out of there and got reaquanted with the public buses (and their marginally annoying drivers who happily chat away loudly blathering crap on the mic for about 6hrs at a time)

Swimming with.....seals - After my second attempt to swim with dolphins failed down in Kaikoura I decided to give up on them and go to the visually overwhelming Abel Tasman coastline to see if the seals there were any more friendly. Luckily they were. So much so that I was surrounded by the little cuties swimming and diving around me and tryng to knock off my mask with their noses. Yet another unforgettable experience on my trip.

Hanging Ten in Mount Monganui - Thanks to the very warm hospitality of Paddy and Claire, I finally discovered what hanging 10 and hanging 5 actually means. Spent most of my time trying not to drown, but did manage to stand up on the surfboard a couple of times.

Then I went to South America...

Around Perth

2006-03-21T05:48:00.000Z

So, from Coral Bay, I made my way down to Kaikoura where I hung out for a week, with an ineresting bunch of locals. Also met a couple of amusing Irish brothers who more than lived up to their national sterotypes and got involved in heavy drinking most nights. All that, mixed with lots of fishermen on leave and a landlord's policy of employing fit young women only at the one pub in town made it a fun few days!

From there I got a lift with Nick and Simon (the Irish lads) to Perth, via a memorable stop off at The Hutt River Provence. Supposedly, an independednt state in the middle of Australia. The reasons are a bit blurred, but basically The farmer had a dispute with the government and, via some loophole, successfully managed to gain independence from Oz. Not sure how genuine it all is, but did allow me to get my passport stamped and also exchange some local currency..all with Prince Leonard's head on it - the owner of the farm.

From there, we got to Freemantle, a suburb of Perth. The next week was spent preparing for and then celebrating Australia day. The city put on a ludicrous fireworks display which lasted about an hour and left the whole place shrouded in smoke! I loved Perth. The laid back lifestyle people have there, the clean, uncluttered streets, and the sky. Stunning rich blue sky...everyday! Am definitely going back there!

From Perth I spent a week down south in checking the local wineries, beaches and wildlife. All pretty stunning. Finally managed to leave Oz on a(nother) beautiful sunny morning and took aflight to Auckland...

West Coast Oz

2006-02-12T03:43:00.000Z

Definite theme emerging here...the further away I get from England, the less time I seem to be having to update the blog. Anyway, Im now in New Zealand and so reckon its about time I dropped down some experiences from down under.

Arrived in Darwin just before New Year, and promptly got a flight down the coast to Broome for New Year. there was nothing actually wrong with Darwin (although it was stifling hot and rainy) but I was told Broome was the place to be for a "wild" new year... I did meet the very australian named "Mick" in Darwin though, the local drunk, who merrily introduced me to the local brews. His Pommey bashing skills were strong and I spent most of the evening being the brunt of lots of anti English jokes. Luckily I had one line up my sleeve. Im so glad we won the Ashes, it really shuts the locals up!

Sadly, Broome wasnt the wild New year's venue I thought it might have been (apparently they do it better in Sydney or something...) Still, it did stop raining for long enough for me to see a stunning sunset on cable beach, where the sun melts into the sea and the sky to the east, randomly, goes bright red. Also managed to test out my knarly surfing skills and even stood up once. New Years Eve was wet, but I managed to get the Jimmy Wig out in the club we went to which warranted a few amusing pictures (if you want to check out the pics they are at: http://public.fotki.com/RossH/

After Broome I headed down the coast with an EasyRider backpacker bus to Exmouth via a night in the bush, which was cool. Deciced to go diving there and saw some great sights. Again, pics are on the fotki site. Also went to watch turtles laying eggs at midnight on the typically Aussie named "turtle beach". After watching these giants slowly crawl out of the water, dig a metre deep hole, and then lay about 300 eggs it became my highlight of the trip. Difficult to descibe really. The fact that it was surpassed about 2 days later surprised me.

After Exmouth we headed on down to Coral Bay. By far the most beautiful beach Ive ever been to. The typical white sand and crystal clear water, of course, but also a coral reef full of life, about 10 metres offshore. I almost bumped into a turtle on my first snorkel trip. Also saw reef sharks circling around me and Sting Rays hiding on the sea floor. My new trip highlight was on a manta ray swim tour we did. Basically we found a giant manta ray (about 4 metres from tip to tip) in the bay and swam along side it for about half an hour. And just to top it off we saw a load of sharks and turtles as well.

Its too hot in this internet cafe so I'm off for a cool beer and will do some more blog later

The Final Asian Leg

2006-01-15T07:12:00.000Z

Hmm, its been a while since I last logged a blog and so Im now almost a month behind! Unfortunately, with my memory this isnt going to be easy, but here goes...

Chang Mai was great fun. I was only there for one night, but managed to find hte party. When I checked in, the guesthouse owner was about to take an Aussie girl out for the night to show her the town and invited me to join them on the condition that we bought his drinks. Sounded like a fair plan, but we soon realised it was a bit of a stitch up when he ordered himself a bottle of whiskey at the first bar we went to! Luckily it only cost about 4 quid!

That pathed the way for the rest of the evening and we all ended up having a pretty heavy night. Highlights included going to a Thai "Superclub" (where the Aussie girl and I were the only westerners) and watching a selection of Thai S-Club wannabes singing and dancing very badly on stage. Also had a pretty odd experience there when a team of blokes grabbed me whilst I was by the bar and proceeded to crick my arms, back, elbows and fingers as a kind of massage...

My 9am flight to Kuala Lumpur the next morning was far from fun. Especially when the pilot decided to reduce altitiude by dropping us for about a second before coming in to land. Still, we all got down safely.

KL was vast. I spent a few days there seeing the sights, includng the highly impressive Petronas Towers, and stocking up on all sorts of useless fake T-Shirts, shorts, and walking boots for Oz.

From KL I took a bus to the rainforest national Park of Taman Negara for a few days. A dense humid jungle to the central south of Malaysia. Having trekked to Everest base camp in the past I thought a quick jaunt through the rainforest would be a breeze. Having failed to drum up any support from anyone else in the guesthouse I decided to head off for a 10k walk on my own. The plan was to trek for about 10k to a lookout where I would spend the night, and trek back in the morning. I set off armed with litres of water, and overnight bag and plenty of peanuts. After about 5k all was good. Despite being drenched with sweat (humidity levels there aer ridiculous) I was happily following the path to the lookout and avoiding very large ants, spiders, and who knows what else sat up in the rainforest canopy.

After about 8km things werent so rosy. Somehow, whilst crossing a small stream Id lost the main path and continued into ultra dense forest on what turned out to be an animal track. Rather than turn back, I thought Id just go a bit further and see if I could push on through to the look out. About 1k later I realised I was utterly lost as I couldnt find the path back and decided to begin recording my own video diary, more as a bit of a joke, just in case I didnt make it out!

By this time I was out of water so used all my bush craft survival skills (I'd like to thank Ray Mear's great TV programmes for this) to locate and drink some stream water. I then followed the stream to a larger river and eventually found a path that took me back to the entrance. I arrived back there, almost crawling, after the sun had gone down, drenched due to a passing monsoon, and probably the most knackered Ive ever been. Whilst Id never admit it now, I think there was a period there when I was pretty worried about having to spend a night in the middle of the rainforest with the deadly ants, killer spiders, malay tigers and death leeches...Its quite amusing rewatching my video diares and seeing my rapid demise from a cocky jungle rambler to a quivering dehidrated wreck

Anyway, I survived Taman Negara and bussed out of there a couple of days later to Melaka where I spent a rather long week trying to kill time before heading to Singapore. Time killing activities included the local crocodile "park", the local zoo, the local golf course, the local Chinese market and buying a brand new guitar for 10 quid. At the time, a great investment, but now, every time I pack up my stuff, cursing the guitar shaped extra bag I have, Im not so sure...

More Pictures

2006-01-07T09:13:00.000Z

Happy New Year

Finally found a decent picture upload site:

http://public.fotki.com/RossH/ross_around_the_world/

Wood Laos

2005-12-19T12:24:00.000Z

Laos rocks. Compared to the rest of SE Asia, I found the people there so friendly and so laid back that Im definitely coming back. Perhaps its because no one forceably tried to sell me any clothing...in fact, it was more of a struggle to get anyone to sell you anything!

From Vietnam we arrived at the Laos border at around lunchtime. As the buses there tend to wait until they are full before departing, we had a good couple of hours at the border town. Time enough for me to get involved in a few card games with the locals. Luckily, some Aussies had taught me how to play the night before in Vietnam. Its kind of a poker style game, but the most important thing is to make as much noise as possible when slapping the cards on the table.. could easily be adapted into a drinking game! Having thrashed the locals at "Loud Slaps Laos Poker" we finally got going to Sivanouket -
Bit of a dead town, and having spent 1 hr there I decided to jump straight on a night bus to the capital, Vientienne.

Vientienne is ultra laid back. I thought it might have been because I had arrived on a Sunday, but was amused to see that very little changed on a Monday morning. It's definitely now up there as my new favourite capital. Had an amusing discussion with a tuk tuk driver who, whilst lying in a hammock in the back of his van, decided that he couldnt be arsed to move when I asked for a lift, and just suggested I walked. I hired a bicycle instead.

After Vientienne, I bumped into a couple I'd met a few weeks before in Cambodia and we travelled north together, checking out the stunning scenery in Vang Veing, along with some pretty chilled out tubing down the river. The town itself was a bit odd. Full of restaurants showing "Friends" on repeat all day long. Would have been paradise for Gav.

From there we took another stunning bus ride through the mountains to Luang Prabang, in the North. Another beautiful town in a stunning setting, seemed the ideal location to get a Laos foot massage...It was great. 1 hour of having my feet pampered. I could hardly walk afterwards though

From LP, I took the legendary "fast boat" over the border to Chang Mai in Thailand. Safe to say its a 15 hr journey Ive trying to mainly blank out. 7 hrs of it were spent sat on a tiny boat, my knees against my chin, flying up the Mekong river listening to the dulcet tones of the V8 engine about 50cms behind me. Joy.

It was good to arrive back in Thailand, (mainly because it wasnt a speedboat) but also because there's something quite comforting about the place. Its a kind of semi-ordered chaos opposed to the general chaos I found in Cambodia and Laos

Everyone loves a picture of Ross

2005-12-12T10:10:00.000Z

Managed to get a few more pictures (mainly of me...) uploaded. Go here to view:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=4lq41n3.yewjdov&x=0&y=-dao6sh

If anyone knows a less rubbish site to upload pic, let me know.

Narm

2005-12-12T09:54:00.000Z

Vietnam is an interesting place. Apart from the museum at Saigon, I saw very little evidence of the war which tore it apart. As a total contrast from Cambodia, the people are very pushy and out to get as much cash as possible from their tourists, which after a week of constant battling did get a bit much.

I'd like to think that Id learnt a bit from my buying exploits in Thailand and cambodia, and was therefore very happy to leave Vietnam with only the, er, 2 tailored shirts...the offer sounded too good, and I just couldnt say no. Actually, they look ok and make a big difference from my rapidly disintegrating grimy t-shirts. Having said that, one of the sleeves seems to be falling off one of my shirts already..

My main memories of Saigon are a bit of a drunken haze from 3 days partying there with a few other Brits. Seem to remember buckets of vodka were involved though, which is never a good start...The rest of the country was a bit of a tourist route. All the "tourist buses" run the same routes up and down the coast, so you are never far away from a beach, someone trying to sell you the next leg of the tour, and other travellers. I kept on being lumbered with the same bunch of annoying Welsh lads on every bus I took. There is only so much whacky "boyow" Welsh humour you can take on a 10 hr bus trip

Still, visually, the coastline is stunning. If it hadnt been raining most days, it would have been really awesome.

Spent a couple of days in a very laid back retreat called Jungle Beach. Literally, a mountain, jungle, a few huts and the beach. It was a great to place to catch up on some sleep and generally do nothing.

Also spent a limited amount of time in Mui Ne (great beach) Hoi An (old colonial town - reminded me of Trinidad in Cuba) and Hue (another old town with impressive ancient citadel ruins, completely flattened by the considerate US Air Force during he war)

From Hue I headed east across into Laos, which, thankfully, was a pleasantly different experience.

2005-11-25T14:08:00.000Z

Finally managed to get a few pictures uploaded:

Me and Steph at Heathrow before heading off

Angkor Wat at Sunrise

New gmail email address

2005-11-24T12:40:00.000Z

Im fed up with hotmail so have created a gmail account. Its the same address, ie rosshurman@..... but, mum, just replace hotmail.com with gmail.com at the end. I'll still check both accounts though

3 weeks in...

2005-11-24T12:11:00.000Z

cambodia is stunning. Spent around 2 weeks there and saw some incredible sights. Everything is changing so fast here that all the guide books are out of date which makes it even more amusing when you arrive somewhere only to find the choice of guesthouses has gone from 2 to 30. We crossed the border at Poipet and with the Bangkok "Suitgate" fresh in my mind I was being doubly wary not to immediately get scammed on entrance.

I immediately got scammed on entrance into Cambodia with some money exchange routine but Im quite glad to say that so were the other 15 people on the bus as well, which made me feel slightly better! Once over the border, the bus dissappeared and all 15 of us were herded onto a pickup truck for a long trip to Siem Reap along the worst road Id ever seen. Basically, it gets washed out every week, so its a mixture of mud, dust and massive holes. At the thought of falling off the back one couple kicked up a fuss and arranged to be taken in a taxi instead. When they asked for a 3rd person to share the ride I took it and am pretty glad I did. It still took us 5 hrs of pain (numerous head injuries from hitting the car roof etc) but later found out from one of the passengers that their trip had been a bit of a 10hr nightmare in the dark!

The main attraction here is Angkor, a huge, and I mean massive, temple complex in the North East. The area I visited was 15sqkm, but then there were another 2 complexes a bit further out that I didnt get to even after 2 days. Many of the temples are in a bad condition but, visually, they are still stunning. Just about made the sunrise photo opportunity one morning at the most famous Angkor Wat, and having waded through coach loads of Japanese tourists managed to get a couple of decent pics.

From Siem Reap I headed to the capital Phnom Phen (along a pretty decent tarmac road!) Somehow timed my arrival with the annual Water Festival, where all the rural Cambodians head to the capital to watch 3 days of boat races and fireworks. From Phnom Phen, I took a trip to see some irrawaddy river dolphins in the North East before heading south to the beaches.

The beach areas in the south were decent, but nowhere near the idlylic paradise islands in Vietnam and Thailand. Ive still got those to look forward too!

Ended up doing lots of sunbathing/eating/drinking and also a bit of getting robbed. A not entirely sober 4am smim on our way home cost four of us 2 cameras, 2 mobile phones, some cash and a watch. I was really lucky as I only lost my watch but the others were understandably gutted. Not so luckily for me, it all evened itself out 2 days later when I had my mp3 player pinched on a night bus to Vietnam.. Oh well.

Now in Saigon learning more about the War and enjoying a few lazy days in the city before heading back to a beach to, erm, spend some more lazy days on the coast.

Sadly, my photo uploading skills are pretty basic and I havent got to grips with it yet. Maybe next time

Hope everyone is having fun in the cold back in the UK at the moment!

Banghot

2005-11-09T10:57:00.000Z

Hi, Arrived in sweltering Bangkok after a pretty long dreary flight - recomend watching the Wedding Crashers though if you have a few hours to kill! Bumped into Steph from work, and her mum at Heathrow, which was amusing. Especially as she was wearing pretty much the same outfit as me! (photo to follow) I swear she's copying my every move..

This place is crazy, although its definitely developed a lot since I was last here 10 yrs ago. Theyve even got a monorail now, imaginatively called "Skytrain" ...bit like Shelbyville's, for anyone who's seen that Simpsons episode

As soon as I arrived, I was determined not to get done by the old Tuk Tuk driver's Gem store scam (where they take you round the city, drop you at the gem store, get a free fuel voucher, then bugger off, leaving you to find your own way home) and so was pleased when I got through 2 journeys without ending up there. Unfortunately, I must have been too busy avoiding that, as I was eventually unwittingly done by the old "buy a cheap custom made suit, sir, oh go on" scam instead, when I was taken to a local tailor's shop. Admittedly, it was cheap, but I still cant believe I was persuaded in the first place. Reckon they hypnotised me or spiked my water or something. Either that, or Im just really gullable.. by the way, in case you were wondering its being posted back home, rather than coming with me for the next 10 months. Im not that stupid...

You'll be glad to hear its been raining loads since Ive been here, although its not quite like the UK as its so hot it usually dries within about 10 mins. So today, Ive spent most of my time avoiding the heat/rain by hanging out in some of the hundreds of new shopping malls they've just built. Despite the obvious poverty, there seems to be a lot of money about here as well.

Its a great city, but there's only so many fake watches, Yuk Tuk journeys and "exotic" massages (joke!) I can handle so I'm off to Cambodia tomorrow, which will hopefully be a bit more laid back..although Ive been told arriving at Poipet on the border is a bit like being a piece of meat dropped into a pirhana tank.

Countries I'm Visiting

2005-10-28T12:37:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm off in a week and here's where I'm scheduled to fly to:

6th Nov 05 - Fly London to Thailand
27th Dec 05 - Fly Singapore to Darwin
29th Dec 05 - Fly Darwin to Broome
6th Feb 06 - Fly Perth to Auckland
22nd Mar 06 - Fly Auckland to Santiago
14th Aug 06 - Fly Lima to London

All the time in between I'll be spending sat in front of a PC updating this blog....