Kathryn & Antony's World Tour

Australia Xmas and New Year 2007

2007-01-01T14:49:00.004Z

For Christmas and New Year I decided to go to Australia. After a long and hard year at work, I needed a break.
First stop: The Great Ocean Road. I booked a tour on the Wayward Bus, 4 days traveling from Adelaide to Melbourne. The tour left on Xmas day so I flew to Adelaide on the 24th, spent half the day looking at the wonderful museums there (although I don't think much of Adelaide itself - have never quite found the "heart" of it). I visited the immigration museum, and the Adelaide museum of Art, where the exhibit a lot of Australian paintings, some of which I really liked, and also a special exhibit of art from the Tiwi islands. The delightful lady on the desk also let me in at the student price :-)

The trip was amazing. I took the hosteling option, which turned out to be really great and social! We had a few big nights out Aussie style. Our guide, Ben, was great at arranging lunches and dinners and sociable places (namely the pub!).

The Wayward Bus

Under the official Great Ocean Road sign

We stopped at some wonderful lookout points on our way to the Ocean Road. The first 2 days out of Adelaide really showed us some amazing geological features. The reason this coastline is so dramatic is because it is made of limestone. A jointy rock, easily eroded by wind, rain and sea.

Umpherston Sinkhole was formed by the collapse of a chamber of a big cave system below Mount Gambier. It was named after James Umpherston who started to cultivate it and lived on a property nearby. He arrived in 1860. The sinkhole has recently been transformed back into the garden James created.
The depression is fertile, with more topsoil and more moisture than outside, which makes it an ideal place for a garden.

London Bridge, Great Ocean Road
Recently the "London Bridge" fell away from the main land and is no longer a bridge. Interesting story of 2 people trapped on it when it actually collapsed. They were rescued 7 hours later hiding their faces... later found out to be 2 people having an affair....

Apollo Bay - My favourite point on the G.O.R. From above this rock looks like a seahorse. The bay is inaccesable by land and totally beautiful.

With the 12 (or now 8!) Apostles

At the 12 Apostles site I took a 10 minute helicopter flight to view the coastline by air. It was spectacular and well worth it! Gives a totally different perspective.

Always a treat for me, we stopped at a wildlife refuge. I saw a wild Koala! And also hiked up a hill to find 2 kangaroos!. Never fails to impress.

And so we crossed the border into Victoria and onto our final stop, Melbourne. Bye bye Great Ocean Road! I had an amazing time :-)

After being dropped of in Melbourne, I headed straight for the airport for a flight to Sydney. On December 29th I met up again with my good friend Chris, whom I met working as a park ranger in the Grand Canyon 10 years ago! We had some wonderful drinks overlooking the opera house and even managed to get a very good photo!

New Years Eve, Sydney style was spectacular! Jeanette and I headed down to the harbour and were lucky enough that her flatmate, Holly, had got tickets to the Opera House forecort! Our view was 100% Bridge and nothing in the way. Absolutely awesome!

Japan for a Month!

2006-07-01T04:48:00.000+01:00

In July, I went to Japan for a month with work. I really enjoy japan so this was a fantastic opportunity for me to spend more time there. It was my third trip, and Antony managed to come out for one of the wekeends I was there. The rest of the time I seemed to do an awful lot of shopping...

The view from my apartment in Ebisu, SW Tokyo

Kamakura
Carl, Megumi and Sasha took us to Kamakura for the day, to see Japanese temples and gardens.

France

2006-05-25T07:21:00.000+01:00

May 25, and we arrive in France. It felt a bit weird initially to have our main holiday in Europe, when we have been focusing on Asia for the last 4 years. Friends of Antony's - Sarah and Lawrence - were getting married in Nice, so we decided to combine the wedding with a holiday touring Provence in the South.
Paris
First stop though - Paris. I love Paris. We took a direct flight from Hong Kong and were lucky enough to sleep for 10 hours, only waking up when they served breakfast!
Since I have never been to the Louvre, I convinced Ants that we should spend a day and a night in Paris at the start of the trip. We booked a small hotel in the Bastille area Hotel St Paul le Marais.The hotel was lovely, in such a beautiful, classic area of Paris. We enjoyed wandering around the Marais area, following a short Lonely Planet walking tour before heading into the centre of town.

The Louvre was amazing - such an interesting building and full of classic collections. It wasn't too busy and we didn't have to queue to get in. Of course, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa, avoiding the Da Vinci Code tours on offer!
We then headed to Monmartre, to the Sacre Coeur. We walked into the Cathedral and then took the steps to the top. The view was fabulous.
That evening we had what turned out to be the most amazing meal of our whole trip - and that's quite an accolade as there were lots of amazing meals I have to say!!
We decided, on recommendation of our mate Charlie who used to live in Paris, to take a walk down Rue de Lappe just off the Bastille. It was fabulous, a street full of activity and we browsed menus looking for a place to eat. Of course, we wanted to eat french food and decided on the restaurant "Les Sans Culottes". We liked the look of their menu. The ambience and hospitality were superb. It was a compact, full and bustling place with low lighting and plenty of french feel.

Provence

Early on day 2 we took an easyjet flight to Nice and picked up a hire car to start our tour of Provence. We had planned 6 nights visiting some of the remote hilltop villages and wanted to focus on countryside and national park areas. First stop was the Gorges du Verdon, the "Grand Canyon" of France. Of course, given my experiences in the real Gand Canyon I was really looking forward to seeing it, and we both were keen to hike to the bottom.

We opened the huge Provence touring / driving map that Mum had leant us and decided immediately to follow all of the small country and b-roads to the Gorge. We planned to spend the day driving and stopping whenever we wanted. It only took about 20 minutes out of Nice for us to know that this was going to be an amazing trip and exactly what we had hoped for. The views and villages were stunning, the weather was glorious. Living in Hong Kong had helped us to forget the feel of European history and culture, and boy, was it good to be back.

The scenery en route

The Gorge

Moustiers Sainte Marie

Bastide Du Paradou

The view from our room

Hiking in the Gorge
One of the main reasons for visiting the Gorge, and the Provence region in general, was for us to tackle some serious day hikes. We are used to hiking in Hong Kong and were eager to take in the French scenery on foot. Jean Louis had recommended a 5 hour trail that would take us right to the bottom of the gorge and along it. It was a steep and slippy descent down on a gravelly trail, but once at the bottom it was worth it. The river was flowing nicely, and there were great plunge pools of aqua marine water and beaches for us to sit on and enjoy a swim.

Saint Remy de Provence

Bali

2005-07-27T07:08:00.000+01:00

July 23, 2005 and we fly to Bali. Our first trip to Indonesia. We went for Karen and Alex's wedding, our good friends from Hong Kong, but manage to combine with some extra time off to make this our special summer holiday.

Tanahlot
Staying at "The Le" Meridien at first, at Tanah Lot, temple of the earth and sea, about 30 minutes from Seminyak. A beautiful resort hotel, most of the other wedding guests also stayed here and it was great to meet new faces and catch up with old firends before the wedding day.

View from our hotel room

hotel pool

Ants, Carl & Sasha

Volleyball in the pool

Boat trip

Tanah Lot Temple

Alex & Karen's Wedding Day

Ants with the Williams'

Hong Kong girls

Ceremony

Here she comes!

The audience watches...

During the wedding Ceremony

Signing the register

Confetti

All the guys

Karen & The Girls

Matt&Claire

HK Crew

Sunset

Back To Main Page

Kathryn's 30th Birthday

2005-05-21T03:35:00.000+01:00

May 21, 2005 and Kathryn finally succumbs to turning 30....
What better way to do it than sailing around the islands of Hong Kong with your friends? Antony organised a brilliant day on a fully catered boat, with a special surprise birthday cake, cool tunes and nice weather for my special day, and it was brilliant.
Edd even came over on his travels to join in and stay for a week or so, and it was wonderful to see him and catch up.

With Georgia & Jobina

K & Jobina

Antony & Edd

Floating bar

A weekend in the Philippines...Anyone?

2005-05-16T14:54:00.000+01:00

13th May, 2005 and Ants and I jet off to a long weekend in the Philippines. How decadent to be able to say that! This is why we live in Asia. The Philippines is a new country to me so I am excited. It feels like ages since I've had that new country feeling.
We took a direct flight to Cebu, in the middle of the country, which is mainly made up of small islands. Delighted to be out of work, and only a 2 hour direct flight away, we had a private car pick us up and take up to the Shangri-la resort. Not knowing what to expect we were very pleased with the resort and the beautiful sea!
The Philippines is a very poor country and reminded us of elements of Laos and Cambodia. Driving into Cebu city one day we saw many wooden houses and local corrrugated iron shops and eateries.

The Shangri-La Hotel

We spent each day on the beach, ignoring the pools in favour of the lapping of the sea and sounds of Bob Marley in the background. Heaven. More frozen Margaritas please. Managed to nearly finish my book, although Ants ploughed through another to win the reading trophy!

In between sleeps that was...

The local transport is in "Jeepneys", large minibuses elaborately decorated and with no glass windows or doors. Looks like fun!

Jeepneys

Tasmania

2004-03-26T03:10:00.000Z

March 2004, and we wave a fond farewell to Sydney to move onto some more travels in Australia. We are making our way to Hong Kong, but taking time to travel around Tasmania and the west coast of Aus along the way.
In a word, Tasmania was breathtaking. We loved our time there. Flying into Launceston ("Lonny" to the locals) we made our way to our hostel in the centre of town. We only had 8 ydasin Tassie, so we spent the next day exploring Launceston before heading to our next destination - Stanley.

Stanley

Tassie Sunrise, Stanley
Stanley is famous for it's Nut. "What is it?" I hear you cry... Well actually its a large volcanic plug in the earth which has been exposed due to erosion. We made it our challenge to see sunrise and then climb up the Nut at dawn. Cold, but beautiful, the views were lovely.

Me with "The Nut", Stanley

Cradle Mountain
After Stanley, we headed to Cradle Mountain National Park, in the South East. The weather was starting to get much colder now and we were relying on our outdoor gear to keep us warm. We had reserved a couple of bunks in the Youth Hostel in the Park, and planned to spend the next day hiking up the mountain. As we drove into the park we saw a wild wombat! It was defintitely a wild kind of place and we were excited about what esle we would see.
We shared our hostel room with Irene and Peter from Sydney. They are retired, over 60, and spent 3 months each year driving and camping around Australia. They were a great laugh and a real inspiration to us.

Amazing Cradle Mountain Nat. Park

cradle

Derby
There is also a Derby in Stanley! So we detoured to go through it and take picutres for Ant's grandad, who tired to connect all Derby towns in the world through the internet. It was very rustic and had a true colonial feel to it. Just a sleepy town.

pingu

Freycinet National Park
On our way to Hobart we stopped in Freycinet National Park. In particular we wanted to get the famous views of Wineglass Bay.

Wine Glass Bay, Freycinet Nat. Park

Hobart

Christmas in Sydney, 2004

2003-12-24T23:54:00.000Z

Christmas Day

Christmas dinner!

Green Island, Great Barrier Reef

Green Island Hotel

Working at The Zoo...

2003-09-17T16:12:00.000+01:00

September 17, 2003 and 9 months after leaving my job in london I had found another one - only this time it was different. I got a 2 week temp role in HR at Taronga Zoo. 2 weeks turned into 5 months and it was actually the only job I had whilst we were living in in Australia. Ants on the other hand wasn't so lucky. He temped in a variety of roles before finally settling in HR with Challenger Financial Services, working with our friend Hayley.

The zoo was amazing. Each day I took the ferry across the harbour to Mosman.
Literally, the management and administraiton offices were in the middle of the zoo complex, next to the monkeys. Zoo keepers would "pop in" to discuss HR issues with odd animals perched on them! The work wasn't so challenging - I was wrtiting policies and procedures - but it was a great experience and taking lunch hour to wander around the zoo was truly blissful.

In Taronga

Living in Sydney August 2003 - March 2004

2003-08-31T05:33:00.000+01:00

In August 2004 we arrived in glorious Sydney. Our plan was to live and work there for the best part of a year. So, after nearly 8 months of back packing, we were finally ready to find an apartment and jobs...

Opera House

Harbour Bridge

And we found a place to live! $350 a week for our 1 bedroom apartment in Randwick, in the Eastern Suburbs. We loved it. Fully furnished, all bills included.
Randwick is close to Cooggee, and is a great hub for shopping and transport into the city. We lived above a doctors surgery, on the top floor of a classic sydney building. The living room window had a viwew of the Coach and Horses pub, which we refequently popped into for the odd schooner.

Our humble abode!

And our familiar view of the Coach and Horses

Our kitchen

One of the first people we met up with when we got to Sydney were Sarah and Alan. We had met them on a boat travelling from Vitenam to Cambodia and were excited to see them again. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Sarah and Alan are school teachers, and both found work easily in Sydney. One day there was a national teachers strike so they had the day off. Since Ant's and I were not yet working, we all went off to Pitwater, North of Sydney and went to the beach where they film Home and Away. It was cool, but the sunshine was glorious and it was one of the nicest and most fun days we spent in sydney. Kind of felt like we were playing hookey from school! Special mention to "The Hack". Alan, (aka bendy stick man) introduced us to the delights of Hacky Sack on this day, and it will live with us forever. Long live summer days of playing Hack with S&A. I must say though, I'm useless.

Me and Sarah

The Home & Away gang

Picnicing on Tamarama

We are also lucky that we know quite a few people from Morgan Stanley in London who now work in Sydney. We spent time with Fran and Lew (loving the tennis doubles!), Peter and Melissa, Pat and Georgia. Also, Chris Reynolds! My favourite ranger now living in Syndey, and I got to know my second cousin, Jeanette who also moved out there. We also spent a lot of time with Andrew and Hayley, whom we met in Vietnam.

The old MS gang in Sydney

With Andrew & Hayley

Me & Jeanette

North of Sydney is the beautiful Ku-rin-gai National Park. We hired a car for the day and drove over there. A beautiful park, with glorious views over Pitwater, we enjoyed the short walking trails which were all over, and explored much of the area.
There was plenty of wildlife. We stopped for a picnic and along came a huge monitor lizard. And, perhaps it was the time of year, but the trails were criss-crossed with enormous spiders webs, inhabited by enormous spiders. They looked like "Huntsmen" spiders - we surely had seen enough of them on our travels - but the webs were so large that we had to duck to avoid them. Waving a stick in the air was the best option for self preservation....

Andrew and Hayley invited us to go to the Hunter Valley music festival with them for a weekend. We stayed at Hayley's Dad's house and set up picnic in a local vineyard field which hosted the festival. It was fantastic. Plenty of wine, great company, and if I remember a mini darts championship in the garage later...

The 2003 Rugby World Cup

rugby

The Hunter Valley

Hunter

New Years Eve 2003

Saz & al

Me, Sarah & Alan on NYE

Our leaving party, March, 2004

With Chris

Australia

2003-06-02T16:04:00.000+01:00

June 2003 - April 2004

Australia, land of wide open spaces. And here we are! What an amazing place. We love it. Our first time in Australia and we plan to tour form Melbourne, to Adelaide, up the red center to Darwin, to Cairns and down the East Coast to Sydney - 3 months of blissful sightseeing!

Groovy Grape Tour
After leaving Melbourne, we booked on a bakcpacker tour with Groovy Grape Tours, which would take us from Adelaide to Alice Springs taking 7 days, driving and sleeping in swags at night. A swag is an Austrlain slleping bag with a waxy outer lining that covers your head to keep the elements (or animals) off.
We quickly realised that Australia is vast. Driving in the van for most of the day, it was a relief when we got to our next point of interest and were able to stretch our legs. We visited the world's largest cattle station (Anna Creek), that is geographically larger than some countries, and took a flight over to really understand the magnitude.

Flying over cattle station
Our guide taught us about the history of Australia, both geographical and anthropological, and we even learnt how to mix ocre to use as traditional Aborginial face paints!

From there we headed to Coober Pedy, one of the hottest towns in the world, where temperatures reach over 50C in the summer and the locals live underground to escape the heat. We took an underground tour to learn about the history of Coober Pedy and its opal mining.

Mines!

Dog Fence

This is Ants holding the moon!

Ayres Rock
Called Ayers Rock by settlers, the ownership of the rock was relatively recently transferred to the Aboriginals of the area and it regained its Aboriginal name of Uluru, which means Great Pebble. It is now a sacred sight.

At Ayres Rock

The Olgas

Kings Canyon

CLimbing

Sheer cliff

Darwin

Darwin Sunset

With the girls in Darwin

Barrier Reef

Barrier Reef

Airlie Beach & The Whitsundays

In the jacuzzi

Whitsundays

Sailing on the anaconda

Boat Crew

Whitsundays

Frazer Island

Fraser Coast

Frazer Island

At our camp

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

Australia Zoo

Harriet the Galapagos Turtle

With Steve Irwin!

Brisbane and the Goldie!

View over Brisbane with Owen

Goldie

Parakeet

Parakeets, Lots of them!

Climbing the tree

Fishing in the rain with Beanie

Surfers

Out with Aussie Chris

He's a nutter

Aussie Chris in Byron

In Exmouth, WA

Just one of the fantastic sunsets in WA

Major landmark in WA

With a real Wombat!

Karijini Nat. Park, WA, at the bottom of the Z Bend

At the Pinnacles, WA

Hello quokka!

New Zealand - North Island

2003-04-28T14:38:00.000+01:00

April 28th, 2004 and Antony and I arrived in Aukland from Singapore.
We were excited to be back in the western world after 4 months in South East Asia. It was much cooler in New Zealand than where we had been and become used to so our jackets and jumpers came up from the bottom of the back packs.
We spent 3 days in Aukland, resting, sleeping and touring the city. On our first day we made it to the Domain, and to the National museum of History. We decided to book on the cultural show - little did we know we would be starring in ti. Only about 5 tourists attended that day and we all got dragged on to the stage to participate in tranditional Maori dances. It was fabulous. A great way to start the country with history and cultire. And the people were so friendly we really did feel as if we were in the land of the smiles.

Aukland

National Museum, Aukland

Maori Dancers (who are the two on the back row?)

On day 2 we walked across the city to Mt Eden, an extinct volcano to see views back across the city. It was superb and the views did not disappoint.

Aukland

View from Mt Eden

On the Kaori Trail
May 1st, 2004 and we hired an (old!) toyota car to travel up the west coast on route 12 via the Waipoua Kaori forest to the bay of Islands. Kathryn was particulary excited to go to the forests due to her love of trees. We wanted to visit the largest tree; Tane Mahuta or god of the forest . It's the most acclaimed tree in the forest and is 1,200 years old, 52m tall and has a circumference of 13m. The trees' fame finds its roots in Maori mythology. The myth tells how the life was enabled to grow by the Tane Mahuta who created the Sky Father from the Earth Mother.
The tree Te Matua Ngahere, or the Father of the Forest, is thought to be the widest Kauri.They did not disappoint. We had a wonderful afternoon rambling through the forests enjoying the smells and sounds. We are told that this area is one of the few in New Zealnd where you can still see Kiwi's in the wild.... but despite looking, we didn't manage to get a glimpse.

In the Kaori Forests

Te Matua

Big tree

Silver Fern

Waitangi
We made it to the Bay of Islands... but really didn't see them. It was encased in thick fog! We stayed at a great hostel in Paihia. But it rained solidly for the two days we were there.
The Bay of Islands has historical significance for New Zealand. It was here that the first permanent English settlement was born. It was also here that the infamous Treaty of Waitangi was compiled. It was signed in 1840 by 46 Maori chiefs and is the current basis for political, racial and land debate.

Waitangi (yes that's me getting rained on)

From the Bay of Islands we headed South to the Cormandel Peninsula. A big day of driving, it took about 6 hours. We were learning about the "single lane" highways in NZ! En route we detoured thrgouh the Waikino peninsula on the Waikare Inlet east of Kawakawa. It is here that artist Frederick Hundertwasser designed and built a unique public toilet. He built it to include used meterials such as glass and bottles... everyday objects we normally throw away.

toilet

Cormandel Peninsula
Finally we arrived at the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in the town of Whitianga at "The Cats Pyjamas" bakcpackers, recommended to us by Ants' cousin, Ben. It was a rambling old house but very homely and comfy, and of course the owner loved her cats! We spent 3 days in the area and set off to see the beautiful coastline.

Driving

Coromandel

Cathedral Cove

View through Cathedral Cove

Digging at Hot Water Beach

Whangamata

Taupo & the Tongariro Crossing

Tongariro Crossing

The view up high

The crossing

Mount Doom

K with Mt Doom

Ants Mt Doom

Thermal Pools on the Tongariro

Going down..

Steam everywhere

Rotorua

At Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, Rotorua

Ants with the "Old Lady"

Wai-O-Tapu

Boiling mud pools

Wonderful farmland

Waterfall

Wellington

Wellington

With Jane in Wellington

Wind Turbine

Wellington Sunset

Singapore

2003-04-24T16:03:00.000+01:00

Singapore Shoreline

Boat Quay

With Iain

Adam & Evelyn

Eating Singapore night market food

The Durian!!

Raffles

Malaysia

2003-04-04T15:59:00.000+01:00

And so we make it into Malaysia. And it's the height of SARS, but we haven't really heard too much about it, apart form everyone at home telling us not to go to Signapore! I bought a mask, but really didn't need one. It seemed as though most people were not too concerned.
We corssed into Malyasia over the border from Thailand. We walked across, which for me is always a great highlight, physically walking across the border, having your passport checked and entering a new country on the other side.
Our first stop - the Perhentian Islands.

Perhentian Islands
We quickly found out that the only way to get to the Perhentian Islands is to take the (only) boat from Kuala Besut jetty, near the town of Kota Bahru, an.... erm .... interesting... working (read dirty), market town in NE Malasyia.
We stayed at possibly the worst backpackers of our whole 18 month trip - infested room with large cockroaches, dirty bathroom and mosquitoes everywhere - knowing that at 6am we would be out of there and on our way to the boat dock to get to the Islands. And it was worth it. The Perhentian Islands are amazing. The closest place I have ever been to paradise.

The Islands are located in the South China Sea 25 km from the coast of Kuala Besut. It consists of two islands, Pulau Perhentian Besar and Pulau Perhentian Kecil. Both islands are surrounded by beautiful palm-fringed sandy beaches andcrystal-clear turquoise-blue sea. We headed to Pulau Perhentian Kecil, the more rustic of the two islands, with only basic accomodation.

Kuala Lumpur

Towers at night

Petronas Towers

Thailand

2003-03-24T14:58:00.000Z

Cambodia

2003-03-01T14:35:00.000Z

Angkor

Cycling through the entrance to Angkor complex

Bayon

Bayon

Angkor at Sunrise

Vietnam

2003-02-03T14:49:00.000Z

Laos

2003-01-21T14:47:00.000Z

Vientiane
On January 21st, 2003 Antony and I started our journey together. We met at Vientiane airport, in the capital of Laos. Antony had arrived a day earlier from China, having spent nearly 6 months in Asia already, and Kathryn had flown in fresh from London. It was the start of an 18 month plan - to travel in SE Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Laos was our starting point. From there we would travel overland to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and on to New Zealand before entering Australia to travel and find work for 1 year.

Here I am at the gateway to our travels, and the gateway to Laos - Monument Anousavari, Laos' Arch de Triomphe.

A quick mention about the currency - the Laos Kip. It's out of control. Change 50US$ into Kip and you end up with about 5 inches of notes to try and put in your wallet! Its so devalued that at today's exchange rate it is 1 Lao Kip = 0.00009909 US$Dollar... and with the largest note being a 5000 Kip note, you can imagine the wadge you get from the bank.

One thing I remember most about Vientiane are the sunsets. I don't think I had ever seen such a stunning sunset along the Mekong river. We spent 2 days in Vientiane, and then headed to Vang Vieng in the North.

A true traveler's stop over, known for being very chilled out, we had taken a public bus to Vang Vieng. In my diary I wrote "Amazing landscape and chilled out town. And nice lady called "Noi" who made my silk skirt!. Nice room for US$4. Good walking. Wish we had spent more days there".

And good for walking it was. Vang Vieng is a small place but the hills around it are extensive. Situated on the Nam Soong river, looking over the quiet waters to the limestone outcrops layering into the distance in hazy greys and blues, is one of the most beautiful views imaginable.

Two days later we headed out of Vang Vieng, north to Luang Prabang. It actually turned out to be almost the same price to take a mini bus as it was the public bus. Often in SE Asia the minibus is the more expensive option, which on a travelers budget of US$20 per day is too expensive! But we booked and you can imagine our thrill.... when we saw that we were the only 2 going in the "porniest" car since dukes of hazard.

Luang Prabang