Home Again...
I am now back in New Zealand. Sorry for the lack of updates, but you know how it goes with traveling……sometimes you just don’t have computer access.
From where I last left off…….
We enjoyed our last few days in Denmark by not doing too much. We went to the wax museum (like Madam Tussauds in London, just a bit smaller!) On our last night, Cameron and I took my host sisters, Anja and Helle, out for dinner to say thanks for playing tour guides while in DK. It was a nice Mexican restaurant with lovely food! It was a great night and a great way to finish our Denmark visit.
We left Copenhagen by train and headed up to Ålborg, where we stayed the night in a dodgy backpackers. They crammed 7 of us in a room that should really only house 4 people at most! We then took another train to Hirtshals where we caught a ferry across to Kristansand, Norway. That’s where we were met by Ingrid and her mother, Ågot. For those who don’t know, my family in New Zealand hosted Ingrid in 1999 for a year!!
We drove to their home town, Fyresdal. It’s in the middle of nowhere with some of the best scenery I’ve ever seen!!!!!!!! We met the rest of Ingrid’s family, including her Grandmother, who was visiting from Bergen. We spent 3 days there, doing nothing. And I mean NOTHING! We relaxed on the deck, in the sun – reading, writing, talking, sleeping….. what more could you ask for?! And they really looked after us! Always checking we had enough to eat or drink, we were happy and that we were generally ok! Will attach pictures soon, but the photos do it no justice. The scenery was AMAZING! I’d say equal to New Zealand’s beauty, actually!!! Absolutely stunning!
After a few days of relaxing, Ingrid drove Cameron and I to Bergen, where Ingrid has been studying last year. We stayed at Ingrid’s Grandmother’s house, which wasn’t far from the city centre. We had 2 full days in the city. The first day it rained quite hard, so we went to their Aquarium, then headed home to have drinks and watch a movie! The next day was beautiful again, so we crammed in all the sights of Bergen in one day! One amazing thing we did was go up this mountain in a cable car. From there you could see all of Bergen, which was a beautiful view. This city kind of reminds me of Wellington actually!
On the 19th July, we said goodbye to Ingrid at Bergen Airport (at 7.30am!). From there we flew to Stansted Airport in London. We took a bus to the city centre. Thought I was going to pass out with the heat as we were wearing pants and socks & shoes! The air conditioning was broken on the bus, but the heaters worked! 1.5 hours later, we were covered with sweat, outside Victoria Train Station! We found the nearest pub where we quickly changed into shorts and ordered a large, COLD drink! We then found out that London was being hit by a heat wave! The 19th was the hottest day they’ve had in YEARS. They recorded 36 degrees at some stage during the day!!!!! As we had 6 hours before we had to be at Heathrow, we found a park next to Buckingham Palace where we lay in the shade and dozed. We did manage to meet up with Bree (from our Contiki tour), who is now working in London, for a coffee. A rush to Heathrow (the Underground had delays as the heat was buckling the tracks!), wrapped our bags in plastic (we were heading to Thailand, after all!) and rushed to the gate.
No need to rush, as it happened. We waited on board the plane, at the gate, for 1.5 hours! Due to traffic congestion and storage issues, we were told. Finally in the air, we got served “dinner”. Not sure what meal they call it at 11.30pm! I managed to sleep most of the way as we got some seats with extra leg room!!
It was not all peace and quiet though. We had a MORON in our section of the plane. This guy was seated in the middle seat at the front, which is in front of the communal screen (old plane). He kept standing up in front of the screen, even when people kept asking him to move or sit down (crap movie, but that’s not the point!). He was also swearing a lot, which one particular guy didn’t like as he had young children. He asked the idiot to stop swearing, which made him swear more, so he told him to move away from his children with a mouth like that. Set him off even more, as you can imagine. Took 3 flight attendants to get him to sit down. He didn’t listen to any female flight attendants, so they had to call one of the males down from the front of the plane each time they had to deal with him. They even brought down the pilot at one stage! Think he managed to annoy everyone in our section of the plane. He was threatened with the Thai police, but that didn’t scare him. When we arrived in Bangkok, we were told to stay seated, even though we’d come to a stop at the gate. All of a sudden, 6 Thai police came to the back of the plane and escorted Mr Pain-in-the-Ass off!!!! As they turned to leave with him, our section burst into applause!!
We finally arrived at our hotel in Bangkok, where we checked in (with much hassle as they only had us in for 1 night instead of 2), grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went to bed.
Our only full day in Bangkok started with a nice breakfast on the Garden Terrace! We then hit the shops! We had a mall next to our hotel (like the lobby had a direct door into it!) After that, we wandered around the streets by the hotel. We didn’t know where anything was, so just stuck to things within walking distance. As this was our relaxing stop, Cam went back to the hotel for a swim and I went for a foot massage. NZ$5 for an hour massage! They did my feet for 45 minutes and then did my arms, neck and back for 15 mins! It was pure bliss!
That night we went to a dinner and show at the hotel. We had a typical Thai meal (lots of samples of food). Then we had some Thai dancers come out for a while. Showed us a lot of their typical dance moves as someone explained what they meant. The girls are so graceful! It’s amazing how they bend their fingers back so far!
The next day we flew up to Chiang Mai. We arrived mid afternoon, so didn’t do too much in the evening. Grabbed a quick bite in the mall next to the hotel – yes another hotel with a mall attached! It was the biggest in the area – 5 floors!
Our first full day in Chiang Mai, we were picked up by our tour guide at 9am and headed off to Maesa Elephant Camp. This is a training camp for elephants where they learn to work with logs of wood as they use elephants in the jungle for transporting the fallen trees. When we first arrived, it was bathing time! The area of the river we were next to had the younger elephants coming for a bath! It was cute to watch! They are still pretty big animals at that young age!
We then went to the arena where they put on a show to show-off their skills. Some played harmonicas, some played soccor and some painted pictures (decent ones too!). They are so cute to watch! At the end they did a demonstration of what they actually do when “logging” in the jungle. Shows how strong they really are, as it looked like such little effort for them! After the show, we got to go for an elephant ride!!!!!!! It was amazing! The whole time, I just couldn’t believe I was sitting on an elephant! They had seats, so you weren’t directly on the elephant, but it was just as good!!!!
From the elephant camp, we headed to an orchid and butterfly farm. The orchids were beautiful, and they grew without any dirt!! Took us all of 10 minutes to look around, but we also had a big Thai buffet lunch for us there. Another chance to try a bit of all the different Thai dishes. Not really a huge fan of Thai food, but some of it wasn’t too bad. I just don’t like really spicy food.
From there were headed to Chiang Mai Zoo. It’s a zoo you can drive through! Good thing really, as it’s huge and up some massive hills! We drove straight to the Panda enclosure. Once we disinfected our shoes, we went inside. Both pandas were sleeping! Silly time to come! We waited for a good half hour before they started to wake up. Then it was feeding time! The keeper kept throwing big chunks of bamboo into the enclosure for them to eat. He was good and threw them to the front, so they were really close. If I reached in and they reached out, we could probably touch each other – that’s how close we were!! It was a good 1.5-2 hours spent there! Didn’t wander around the rest of the zoo as we have seen zoos before.
Back to the hotel to cool down in our room (only room with air conditioning!). We then got in a taxi and headed to the night markets in town. We were told it was one street, but it was more like five! We grabbed some food from some stalls along the way plus bought a few cheap souvenirs. Thai prices are great!
Went for a swim in the pool when we got back as we were SO hot (25 degrees at 8pm!). It’s great swimming at night as you weren’t instantly sweating when you got out of the pool! Only thing about swimming at night is the bats! The bats were swooping down, skimming the water then darting back up again. And their screeches too! Gives you the shivers! Then we went to the lounge bar downstairs for a quiet drink and listened to the Thai band singing English songs. What a great day!
Our second day in Chiang Mai started with a River Cruise! We went up the river and stopped at a farm that grows Thai herbs. They explained what they use each herb for in Thailand – cooking or medicinal. They prepared fresh fruit and juice for us (great relief from the heat). There isn’t a day where I didn’t have fresh pineapple or watermelon!!! Love it! We then headed back down the river. Took a couple of hours, including hotel transfers! The afternoon was spent relaxing in our air conditioned room or at the pool. I went for another foot massage! Can’t beat those cheap prices!!!!!
The next day was home time. Flew Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Auckland. Rachel and Jo met us in Auckland and took us home (via Wendy’s, of course, for lunch).
GREAT TO BE HOME!
(Photos to come – have well over a thousand to sort through yet, between me and Cam!)
From where I last left off…….
We enjoyed our last few days in Denmark by not doing too much. We went to the wax museum (like Madam Tussauds in London, just a bit smaller!) On our last night, Cameron and I took my host sisters, Anja and Helle, out for dinner to say thanks for playing tour guides while in DK. It was a nice Mexican restaurant with lovely food! It was a great night and a great way to finish our Denmark visit.
We left Copenhagen by train and headed up to Ålborg, where we stayed the night in a dodgy backpackers. They crammed 7 of us in a room that should really only house 4 people at most! We then took another train to Hirtshals where we caught a ferry across to Kristansand, Norway. That’s where we were met by Ingrid and her mother, Ågot. For those who don’t know, my family in New Zealand hosted Ingrid in 1999 for a year!!
We drove to their home town, Fyresdal. It’s in the middle of nowhere with some of the best scenery I’ve ever seen!!!!!!!! We met the rest of Ingrid’s family, including her Grandmother, who was visiting from Bergen. We spent 3 days there, doing nothing. And I mean NOTHING! We relaxed on the deck, in the sun – reading, writing, talking, sleeping….. what more could you ask for?! And they really looked after us! Always checking we had enough to eat or drink, we were happy and that we were generally ok! Will attach pictures soon, but the photos do it no justice. The scenery was AMAZING! I’d say equal to New Zealand’s beauty, actually!!! Absolutely stunning!
After a few days of relaxing, Ingrid drove Cameron and I to Bergen, where Ingrid has been studying last year. We stayed at Ingrid’s Grandmother’s house, which wasn’t far from the city centre. We had 2 full days in the city. The first day it rained quite hard, so we went to their Aquarium, then headed home to have drinks and watch a movie! The next day was beautiful again, so we crammed in all the sights of Bergen in one day! One amazing thing we did was go up this mountain in a cable car. From there you could see all of Bergen, which was a beautiful view. This city kind of reminds me of Wellington actually!
On the 19th July, we said goodbye to Ingrid at Bergen Airport (at 7.30am!). From there we flew to Stansted Airport in London. We took a bus to the city centre. Thought I was going to pass out with the heat as we were wearing pants and socks & shoes! The air conditioning was broken on the bus, but the heaters worked! 1.5 hours later, we were covered with sweat, outside Victoria Train Station! We found the nearest pub where we quickly changed into shorts and ordered a large, COLD drink! We then found out that London was being hit by a heat wave! The 19th was the hottest day they’ve had in YEARS. They recorded 36 degrees at some stage during the day!!!!! As we had 6 hours before we had to be at Heathrow, we found a park next to Buckingham Palace where we lay in the shade and dozed. We did manage to meet up with Bree (from our Contiki tour), who is now working in London, for a coffee. A rush to Heathrow (the Underground had delays as the heat was buckling the tracks!), wrapped our bags in plastic (we were heading to Thailand, after all!) and rushed to the gate.
No need to rush, as it happened. We waited on board the plane, at the gate, for 1.5 hours! Due to traffic congestion and storage issues, we were told. Finally in the air, we got served “dinner”. Not sure what meal they call it at 11.30pm! I managed to sleep most of the way as we got some seats with extra leg room!!
It was not all peace and quiet though. We had a MORON in our section of the plane. This guy was seated in the middle seat at the front, which is in front of the communal screen (old plane). He kept standing up in front of the screen, even when people kept asking him to move or sit down (crap movie, but that’s not the point!). He was also swearing a lot, which one particular guy didn’t like as he had young children. He asked the idiot to stop swearing, which made him swear more, so he told him to move away from his children with a mouth like that. Set him off even more, as you can imagine. Took 3 flight attendants to get him to sit down. He didn’t listen to any female flight attendants, so they had to call one of the males down from the front of the plane each time they had to deal with him. They even brought down the pilot at one stage! Think he managed to annoy everyone in our section of the plane. He was threatened with the Thai police, but that didn’t scare him. When we arrived in Bangkok, we were told to stay seated, even though we’d come to a stop at the gate. All of a sudden, 6 Thai police came to the back of the plane and escorted Mr Pain-in-the-Ass off!!!! As they turned to leave with him, our section burst into applause!!
We finally arrived at our hotel in Bangkok, where we checked in (with much hassle as they only had us in for 1 night instead of 2), grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went to bed.
Our only full day in Bangkok started with a nice breakfast on the Garden Terrace! We then hit the shops! We had a mall next to our hotel (like the lobby had a direct door into it!) After that, we wandered around the streets by the hotel. We didn’t know where anything was, so just stuck to things within walking distance. As this was our relaxing stop, Cam went back to the hotel for a swim and I went for a foot massage. NZ$5 for an hour massage! They did my feet for 45 minutes and then did my arms, neck and back for 15 mins! It was pure bliss!
That night we went to a dinner and show at the hotel. We had a typical Thai meal (lots of samples of food). Then we had some Thai dancers come out for a while. Showed us a lot of their typical dance moves as someone explained what they meant. The girls are so graceful! It’s amazing how they bend their fingers back so far!
The next day we flew up to Chiang Mai. We arrived mid afternoon, so didn’t do too much in the evening. Grabbed a quick bite in the mall next to the hotel – yes another hotel with a mall attached! It was the biggest in the area – 5 floors!
Our first full day in Chiang Mai, we were picked up by our tour guide at 9am and headed off to Maesa Elephant Camp. This is a training camp for elephants where they learn to work with logs of wood as they use elephants in the jungle for transporting the fallen trees. When we first arrived, it was bathing time! The area of the river we were next to had the younger elephants coming for a bath! It was cute to watch! They are still pretty big animals at that young age!
We then went to the arena where they put on a show to show-off their skills. Some played harmonicas, some played soccor and some painted pictures (decent ones too!). They are so cute to watch! At the end they did a demonstration of what they actually do when “logging” in the jungle. Shows how strong they really are, as it looked like such little effort for them! After the show, we got to go for an elephant ride!!!!!!! It was amazing! The whole time, I just couldn’t believe I was sitting on an elephant! They had seats, so you weren’t directly on the elephant, but it was just as good!!!!
From the elephant camp, we headed to an orchid and butterfly farm. The orchids were beautiful, and they grew without any dirt!! Took us all of 10 minutes to look around, but we also had a big Thai buffet lunch for us there. Another chance to try a bit of all the different Thai dishes. Not really a huge fan of Thai food, but some of it wasn’t too bad. I just don’t like really spicy food.
From there were headed to Chiang Mai Zoo. It’s a zoo you can drive through! Good thing really, as it’s huge and up some massive hills! We drove straight to the Panda enclosure. Once we disinfected our shoes, we went inside. Both pandas were sleeping! Silly time to come! We waited for a good half hour before they started to wake up. Then it was feeding time! The keeper kept throwing big chunks of bamboo into the enclosure for them to eat. He was good and threw them to the front, so they were really close. If I reached in and they reached out, we could probably touch each other – that’s how close we were!! It was a good 1.5-2 hours spent there! Didn’t wander around the rest of the zoo as we have seen zoos before.
Back to the hotel to cool down in our room (only room with air conditioning!). We then got in a taxi and headed to the night markets in town. We were told it was one street, but it was more like five! We grabbed some food from some stalls along the way plus bought a few cheap souvenirs. Thai prices are great!
Went for a swim in the pool when we got back as we were SO hot (25 degrees at 8pm!). It’s great swimming at night as you weren’t instantly sweating when you got out of the pool! Only thing about swimming at night is the bats! The bats were swooping down, skimming the water then darting back up again. And their screeches too! Gives you the shivers! Then we went to the lounge bar downstairs for a quiet drink and listened to the Thai band singing English songs. What a great day!
Our second day in Chiang Mai started with a River Cruise! We went up the river and stopped at a farm that grows Thai herbs. They explained what they use each herb for in Thailand – cooking or medicinal. They prepared fresh fruit and juice for us (great relief from the heat). There isn’t a day where I didn’t have fresh pineapple or watermelon!!! Love it! We then headed back down the river. Took a couple of hours, including hotel transfers! The afternoon was spent relaxing in our air conditioned room or at the pool. I went for another foot massage! Can’t beat those cheap prices!!!!!
The next day was home time. Flew Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Auckland. Rachel and Jo met us in Auckland and took us home (via Wendy’s, of course, for lunch).
GREAT TO BE HOME!
(Photos to come – have well over a thousand to sort through yet, between me and Cam!)
posted by Jacki @ 3:32 pm
