Hello people
Were sitting at Mumbai international airport, only 8 hours till our flight leaves.
Already been here 2 hours or so and had our first showers in 48 hours. One of the best showers ever!
This is my 5th day here.
The first 2 were great, really sunny, really warm. Waht a change from England where my flight was delayed because of Snow! Been wearing shorts, sexy vest and flipflops.
Another great thing is how cheap everything is!
1 pound is about 80 rupees.
We got a 2 course meal for 40 rupees. Then went for dinner in a REALLY posh restaurant for 150 ruppes. Also taxis cost about 40 rupees per hour. Yay. So we lived like kings.
However, by the 3rd day I started to get annoyed, seriously annoyed.
All the time we had beggars, sellers and taxi drivers surrounding us.
People seemed to be totally amazed by our 'beautiful' white skin, and stared at us all of the time. We even got asked for autographs at the stations. I was happy to oblige.
We then got the train to Nagpur, over 700 Km. This cost 400 rupees for the 15 hour journey including the bed. Great we thought, only a fiver. However, i had the shittest nights sleep ever! Gotr about 4 hours sleep. Luckily we got there eventually, and headed for the cricket, in a taxi of course.
It cost 140 rupees for the days cricket, just under 2 pounds!
It was great so see so many english people, and we ended up talking to everyone we met.
England got the last Indian wicket in the first over, and then batted all day. We weren't allowed to take our english bottled water in, which was a bit worrying. When we got in there were no shops or anything so we wer a bit worried. However, about 1/2 hour before play there were suddenly hundreds of sellers walking around with ice creams, crisps, etc and cool water in bags! There we were lying on a sun drenched balcony, with the england fans, being brought ice creams and water by the bucketload. Doesnt get much better, and seemed so far away from england.
I started to feel a bit sick in the late afternoon tho, well very sick. Probably a combination of the forkin hot sun, a dodgy curry and the lack of sleep on the train. After the days play, we headed back to the station. Another rubbish 15 hour trip but at least i got about 7 hours sleep this time.
Frankly were now relieved to be leaving, and cant wait to arrive in sydney!
The prices and weather is good here.
But the people are annoying, theres no proper food (curry for breakfast every day gets a bit gross, and all other food is covered in chilli, even the lasagne and baked beans!), theres not much to do apart from looking at things after a couple of days. Everythings all so dirty and noisy. The language is annoying, they speak english, but dont understand our English. They say to us "do you speak english"!! Having said this, half of them are very friendly, and ask where were frm, what were up to and if im married(!?) and try and give us advice, but then another half come up and try and get money off us. Grr
Anyway, its been a worthwhile experience, and made us both appreciate how fookin great england is. And we cant wait to get to Oz, wash our clothes, buy some proper food etc etc. Also the fact that they speak English will be soo great!
Anyway, only 7 1/2 hours till our flight!
Lots of love
Tom (and Bewick!)
Its wednesday evening here on our third evening in Sydney
Were staying bang in the middle of the city, about 5 minutes from the opera house etc and 2 minutes frm the central station.
Tomorrow morning weve gotta get a coach at 6:40am as we start our journey north up the coast.
Sydney has been amazing, I am starting to think it may even be better than England!
The only slight downer is that chocolate bars are about 80p which is annoying, but obviously that hasnt really put us off. Most stuff tho, is on the whole a bit cheaper, but some random stuff costs more, like bread!
Other than that, we coul'dnt ask for much more.
Everyones really friendly and the citiy's tres modern
Lots of stuff seems to be open 24/7 like supermarkets, most pubs, internet cafes etc
Beer is also very cheap
The weathers been about 30 degrees every day
Even this morning, when it rained for about 20 minutes, I was still hot in tshirt n flipflops
We thought as it was our last day here we better make a visit to Bondi beach, even thought it was raining. Hmm
Anyway, by the time we arrived it was sunny again and rather boiling
We hadnt brought any sun cream cos it had been raining wen we left
Anyway, after an afternoon on wat must be one of the best beaches in teh world, got home to find I had turned a kind of rhubarb colour.
So a trip to the shops to get after sun, but they hadnt even heard of after sun so moisturising lotion had to do!
Apart from the beach we've been for a ferry trip across the harbour, and went to Taronga zoo where there were all the australian animals and some lots of other random ones. Also spent a lot of time jsut walking around, looking at / going into interesting places.
Weve been staying in a dorm of 8 ppl which has actually been good as weve got to met all the people passing through. Yesterday we had a scouse couple who had gone to school and were still best friends with the Coral. There is also some a French guy who has been travelling solidly for 10 YEARS, ever since his wife left him. He hasn't even been back to france. Didn't take it too well then...
The hostel is really smart and modern, but only costs about 10 quid a night.
There's a huge TV in the lounge / dining room area, which has loads of english channels
So weve been able to watch football over breakfast wen weve got up early enough (about 7am)
It was certainly a first watching live football whilst eating rice krispies, but a pretty good experience! Think they should have daily breakfast fixtures to compete with GMTV or something.
Its v weird with the whole time difference thing
As we get out of bed you are just getting in it, and at midnight here its 1 in the afternoon in England.
The tv also has new neighbours at 6;30 on channel 10 woo
So Oz could hardly be more different from India (apart from the weather) and is forking great. Yay. Basically England but warmer, a bit friendlier and a bit more modern. Still don't want to think that anythigns quite as good as home tho!
Lots of love
Tom (and Bewick)
HI guys, were sitting at our hostel in Byron Bay after a really tough day at the beach!
Weve been here for the past 4 days in our own appartment with 4 of us, me bewick and 2 guys weve been with for the last week, Lionel and Dave
Had a quality time here, its a laid back beach resort with loads of interesting shops and hundreds of bars and places to eat. It also gets quite rowdy in the evenings! The beaches are amazing, and the sea is really warm, so weve spent hours and hours in the sea
There were a couple of days with really good surf, and we bought a board which has been well-used so far
We started the Oz experience bus from Sydney, and went into the bush.
The first night we stayed in a cool place at Barrington Tops, where we did night kayak rafting which was fun. We also played lots of volleyball, and saw loads of kangaroos
The next day we went to the surf school, which had very nice chalet style accomodation
It was interesting going through the basics of surfing again, but the instructors were cool and it was fun to be surfing in australia at last.
Then we headed up here to Byron. Basically living of BBQs for 3 days, great for me but not so good for Bewick!
One day at the beach we saw 2 different event where people looked like they were dying. One guy was really shaking, and the lifegurads rushed over in their buggies. Everyone stood up to watch, and then a film crew rushed across the beach and started filming it, shoving a sound thing in the poor guys face. Nice photo!
Managed to get most of the photos of the trip so far on the computer, so ive included some pics. Ones of the beach guy dying, one at the surf camp, one at pub, one of the cricket and one of sydney.
TodayI was walking down a side street in Byron shopping when i heard a cry of "Gobby!"
I looked round and there was Leo (sporting a beautiful pink bandage on his haenous leg wound), Oli T and Stewart. Small world eh! Was good seeing them and catching up, once id got over the initial shock. haha
Were heading up to surfers paradise tomorrow fo a couple of days, before going to Brisbane. Then were going 4x4ing on Fraser Island for 3 days, and then 3 days sailing around the Whitsunday islands. Then up to cairns for a 4 day diving course
No rest for the wicked clearly.
Anyway, im getting bored now, so i cant imagine how you must be feeling!
(more importantly, Neighbours is about to start on channel 10!)
Lots of love,
Tom (and Bewick)
Gd'day guys
We've arrived at Airlie Beach and are hopefully heading off sailing tomorrow for 3 days
The coast has just been hit by the worst cyclones in 40 years and all the roads north of us have been shut for the past 4 days
But fingers crossed the winds died down and we should be able to go sailing on our beautfil big boat tomorrow
We didnt actually get to see any frontline action when it came to storms which was a bit annoying, just got sum rain and some big winds
One of our friends just emailed us who was in the middle of it and he had to spend 2 days stranded his hostel room in Airlie because all of the roads were blocked and it was too dangerous to go outside!
Cudve got some cool photos though...
Spent 3 days on Fraser Island which was fun
Its the worlds biggest sand island and apparently has more grains of sand than the sahara!
We were put in a group of 10 and given a 4x4 and a map and sent off for 3 days
I got to drive for a little while which was fun,, got up to 100 kmph which is more than ive eva done in cambridge
Saw some dingoes, swam with some turtles n and saw some crazy lizards
The sea was also full of tiger and bull sharks so no swimming
Luckily there were lots of fresh water lakes
Including Lake Mckenzie which is one of the worlds top 10 beaches
We got split up into 3 groups of 10 and all given our own 4x4s
One of the other groups got a big scratch on their car and had to pay for it to be repainted
The other group managed to flip their car, which rolled 3 times and was written off
They then got a new one and managed to reverse it into a tree
SO they had to pay $6000 even with insurance
(both of them had woman drivers, coincidence or wat?)
Luckily we had an irish bloke who was a top driver and we got away without any damage.
We had a long drive today, did about 700km i think
Even had time to stop off this arvo to play bowls with a bunch of old grannies
It was a bit embarasing, but there were a few of us nd it was q fun actually! Good bar aswell with OAP prices...
We went to surfers paradise for 3 days
There was a nice beach and lots of nightlife but it was quite tacky and over commercial
Went on a mad club crawl on a big bus which was fun tho
We've also been to Bisbane and spend St Patrick's day there
They celebrate it here in a BIG way
the irish guys weve met all say its bigger than in ireland
Got lots of free tshirts and hats and things too woo
Were in the heart of Queensland and headed into the outback for a while
All gets rather hillbilly
All of the houses are built on stilts
We went to a goat farm and got to round up a group oif 200 goats which was an experience
Did some goat wrestling and bucking bronco stuff
Bewick objected to the goat wrestling and it did seem a bit damn cruel but it was funny all the same
We are getting quite lazy and are eating out all of the time at the moment
Gettign really pissed off about the chocolate tho!
It is normally soft when you buy it off a shelf, so you have to get it from fridges, but then its rock hard
Also the cheapest bars are about 90p up to 2 quid
grr
We managed to spend $300 yesterday without actually doing much in particular (mostly on food and drink) Woops
But overall weve only been spending about $150 bucks a day between us
Hopefully before we leave cairns we will have done a bungy jump, diving course and maybe a skydive as well
Apparently is cheaper in NZ tho but we may do both
Bewick wants to do a solo jump first, but im kind of erring to the side on strapping myself to an instuctor before i throw myself out of a plane!
Everyone weve mets saids its the best thing here, even some squamish lasses so i think well have to have a go!
Anyway, i cant think of anythign else itneresting to say
It doesn't seem like ive been gone that long but weve done so much stuff and it all merges into one
Have fun
Tom (and bewick)
Hello everyone, how are we doing? Hope you are enjoying you Easter hols.
We are in Cairns, and have been for the last 9 days.
Had a great time sailing on the whitsundays and snorkelling around the reefs. Get perfect weather and managed to miss the cyclones. We were in a maxi yacht which was very fast and tipped at a crazy angle so that the mast was almsot in teh water and we had to hang on so we didnt slip off. Also good food and good people on board so woo.
Then we went and stayed on magnetic Island for 3 days which was a chilled out place. We went on a koala walk up a huge friggin mountain but managed not to see any koalas, but lots of big scary insects. ALso did some sea kayaking which was fun until i got a way out and reached a buoy which, when i got to it, said 'Shark Buoy'. Looked into the water and saw a huge chunk of meat attatched to a chain, and then paddled straight back to shore!
We stayed in little pod accomodation things surrounded by coconut trees right on the beach.
Then we were going to stop off at Mission Beach but it was hit by the cyclone so had no electicity or water. It was pretty grim driving through it seeing all the buildings without rooves (or roofs?)and stuff. We were also going to do bungy jumping but that was also damaged by the cyclone.
Then we got to cairns which has a tropical climate, so for the first 5 days poured with rain but was over 30 degrees every day, kind of weird sweating and gettin wet from rain. eww
Apparently cyclone is exactly the same as hurricane except it spins the opposite way, and only occurs an the southern hemisphere. We did them last year in Geog and I didnt even learn that. Hmm. I looked in my sink this morning and remmeberd that simpsons episode where they goto Oz and the water spins the other way. This morning mine spun anticlockwise, but I cant remmeber which way it spins in England
We met up with my Binnie cousins which was fun. They were staying in a luxury beachfront resort which made a nice change from our backpacker hostels!
Bewick managed to jump in their pool and land on his face, breaking his nose and having blood pouring out of 3 different places. Nice. We drove around and saw lots of stuff outsside Cairns we wouldn't otherwise have seen without them. We went to a huge waterfall, swam down some rapids and banged our bones, a liquor distilerry with banana, coffee,lemon lime liquors and stuff which obviously we had to try out! Then we saw a funny fig tree and lots of lakes and tropical rainforests and some funny animals. Dave saw a crocidile, and Kieran invented coconut cheese.
We started our PADI diving course 2 days ago. Managed to get 2 of our friends from the Whitsundays to join us which makes it more fun. First we had 4 hours in the classroom which was frankly friggin borin! Then we went in the pool and did practical stuff which was soo much fun. Same again today, followed by an exam. Luckily it was multiple choice, and someone had already ticked most of the right answers so I passed. Bewick beat me tho, getting 49/50 (class swat?!), with the last answer wrong haha. Typically it was perfect sunny weather on teh 2 days when we were stuck in a classroom! Just sitting in a classroom again was so weird and seemed like a world away. I forgot what a short attention span I had and cant quite work out how I survived A levels. Most of the time in the classroom was viedoes anyway, which used to be the least boring part of the lesson at school.
Tomorrow we get up at 6am and head out to the Great Barrier Reef for 3 days and 2 nights on a boat. We do 9 dives in total and it shud be great fun. (Bloody well better be as we paid 270 quid for it!)
We were due to fly to NZ at 5:30 the morning after we got back. But today we found out that we go so deep that we get nitrogen gas dissoled into our blood or something technical like that, which means that you must go up to the surface slowly. It also means that we're not allowed to fly for 18 hours after diving, or else the change in pressure could kill us or paralyse us or give us brain damage or we might have to sit in a decompression chamber for 48 hours. Our flight was only 15 hours after the last dive. Argh. It was a tough decision, but in the end we decided to pay 25$ each to change our flight to the next day. It is sad to be leaving austrlia but also cant wait to get to NZ.
We are going to try and buy a car in NZ and drive around which shud be great as long as Bewick can remmeber how to drive.
Anyway, enjoy you chocolate. Oh and we get to see sharks on the reef. Wish me luck. Stay safe.
Love Tom (and Bewick)
Hi everybody
We are now in New Zealand
The weather is better than everyone said it would be, but changes all the
time so we are putting on suncream one minute then hiding from the rain
the next
We still dont have any trousers or waterproofs yet, and only 1 jumper
each. Trip to the shops is in order...
We stayed in Aukland for 4 days. We couldn't find any supermarkets so we
just ate at the Burger King next to our hostel. They have the best burger
ever, called the Kiwi burger! So we lived off a large kiwi burger meal
with extra fries and a vegetarian sandwich for a few days. We went up
Auckland's big sky tower (the southern hemispheres tallest at 328m). It
was pretty cool, especially the glass bottomed lift and floors, with some
panoramic views over
Auckland:
p064133158.jpg
and
p064133153.jpg.
There are lots of interesting independent clothes and music shops which
makes a nice change. No HMV in sight. We found a cool music shop where we
went crazy and spent $150 on CDs. There was also a ticket office in the
corner, and top of the list was the Arctic Monkeys. Not sold out, no
queues, just $40 a ticket. Mad world! Anyway we also bought ourselves a
beautiful Toyota Hiace (now known as Moggy) campervan thingy
It cost $1,600 (lots of cash
p064133144.jpg) which is about 600
quid. Its going great for a 21 year old van, and we reached the 1,000km
mark today. Actually, I am the official owner of the car hehe. I am now
one of those posh kids who owns a car before they can drive! After
Bewick's terrible driving on Fraser Island I was fairly worried, but he's
done a great job (apart from stalling 4 times at the traffic lights in the
middle of aukland and driving around for the first half an hour with the
boot open). We got an adaptor for the CDs and MP3 player, so we have lots
of good music (mostly my Cds as bewicks MP3 is mostly old rubbish)
We thought it would be a good idea to bring someone else with us to reduce costs and make it more fun. We met this German girl who wanted to come and thought ok, we'll take her. Big mistake. All the other Germans we'd met had actually been quite funny. After the second day we realised she was a moody cow. Anyway, we were trying to think of ways to get rid of her in not such a cruel way (couldnt face a month in a van with her), but then a miracle arrived, and she met some friends in Paihia who she decided to go with instead. She was very apologetic, and we had to try hard to keep a straight face whilst pretending to be sad to be losing her.
We went on a sailing trip aroudn the Bay of Islands. Went along with about 20 dolphins and then snorkeled and saw some hiowge stingrays. Yesterday we went to the northern point and went sandboarding on some massive sand dunes which was really fun. Today we drove up to the very Northern tip which was about 1 hour's drive on a dodgy gravel track. Not really worth it, as there was just a lighthouse, carpack, and load of asian tourists.
I got a New Zealand SIM card so I can text England for 11p each. So text us on 00642102776480.
SO obviously we left Australia, which was a bit sad. We saved the best bit till last though when we went and dived on the Great Barrier Reef for 3 days. It was amazing, The best bit was the night dive which was great when we got in the water (a bit scary when we were looking at the black sea). Had big torches, and as soon as we got in the water saw some green eyes staring back at us. Shark eyes! But there were about 15 of us so only a 1 in 15 chance of being eaten. Infact we were probably in greater danger from the sleeping turtle we disturbed - he was a monster and when 15 people shone their bright torch lights on him, quite understandably he got pissed off, and went like a rocket to the surface, the quickest route being straight in front of our faces. I swear I never thought I would see such a cumbersome looking beast accelerate that fast. We found Nemo a few times, swam with some calmer turtles, stingrays, a zillion fish, saw a fair bit of coral, more sharks p064100067.jpg p064101100.jpg
Tonight we are staying at the Treehouse hostel which is exactly wat it seys on the tin. A hostel in a tree house (with Emus, giant rabbits and chickens and pigs running around in the trees!)
Hope you are having fun holidays. We are having a great road trip (so far!)
Love
Tom and Bewick
(thats an order)
