French Translation

2007-09-13T17:24:00.000+09:30

WE'RE CURRENTLY SITTING IN OUR KUALA LUMPUR HOSTEL WAITING FOR OUR TAXI TO TAKE US TO THE AIRPORT...HOME (sydney) IN 8 HOURS!

Love Katie and David xxx

2007-09-01T19:18:00.000+09:30

Hello Everyone!

This is just a quick blog to let you all know that we have at last found a flight home for the last leg of the journey: Sydney to Brisbane!

So as you know we arrive into Sydney on Friday 14th September and we will be leaving there on Tuesday 18th September at 4pm, arriving into Brisbane Domestic at 5:25pm.

So we will see you all very very soon! Borneo is great, we're having fun, soaking up the last of the trip! Hope everyone is going good back home/UK/still on travels!

Lots of Love, Katie and David. xoxoxoxox

P.S. Alison and Flo, if you're reading this can you send me your email address' please?

2007-08-15T00:19:00.000+09:30

Well hello there!

Long, LONG time no blog. We know, we know and we do apologise for this; however it probably proves easier to explain everything this way as we have had so so many changes to our plans lately that we were confused ourselves for a while as to what we were doing...god knows what you would all have thought with all our chopping and changing! I think some people thought we were coming home this week! But, alas, no we are not!\

So, basically (as simply as it comes) the story goes like this:

3rd July we go to England to see my family and re-coperate.
Spent one weekend in a cute little town called 'Tenbury Wells', some true English style streets, fish and chips and pint beers from the local pub!
18th July we head to Dublin; a grand birthday present (early for the 12th August - i turned 20!) from my parents! Thank you very much! We stayed for a long weekend returning to England on the 22nd, after deciding not to have a last night of accommodation, staying up all night and then sleeping on the floor of Dublin airport for a couple of hours. (Well Dave did, i read the last Harry Potter book - i'm addicted). This ended up being a bad idea as we both got incredibly sick that lasted us a nice couple of weeks.
This whole time was spent in the area of Shropshire where i grew up, but on the 29th July we headed down to London for a few days staying with my Aunts Pippa and Emma (thanks again for having us guys, it was an awesome few days!) We did some sighseeing and then on the 2nd August we took the bus back to Paris. And honestly, the channel tunnel is the weirdest thing i've ever seen. Must also mention that we missed out on meeting up with Dave's parents in Croatia at the end of July...that was a real shame...sorry John and Janelle! But hope you had a great time, sounds like you have been.
By this time we had decided to come home...we'll explain better in person but basically it proved nearly impossible to get jobs in France, will have to go back when we speak French!...It could help! We looked at friut picking etc too but this was also not possible. Will explain when we get home because i type too much anyway!
So we had a week in Paris...did all the stuff you would do there...tried snails...i have a photo of Dave eating one as proof!
On the 10th August we left Paris arriving in Hong Kong on the 11th, we got to our pre-booked hostel to find it in the middle of renovations which was lovely after a long and delayed flight (typhoons in Hong Kong!) but we got someplace in the end.
Spent my birthday there where Dave was a wonderful boyfriend and took me to the 'Victoria Peak View Point' where you can see the whole of the city...except it went and rained and clouded in on us! It was very amusing and lots of fun anyway, we did see the view for a couple of minutes at night!
So then on the 14th August we flew out of Macau (China) to Kota Kinabalu, which is in Malaysian Borneo and that brings us to today! We have 3 days here then fly an hour down south to Miri (same country) where my Grandad lives with his family. He owns a Bed and Brekky and we will live with then for a month and do some work for him there. His place has a website called www.borneo-holidays.com other photos here http://www.treetops-borneo.com/check it out and stay there if you're ever over here! Its a gorgeous place!
Then on the 12th September we leave Miri for Kuala Lumpur, have one night there then fly to Sydney arriving on the 14th! We'll be seeing Liz and Matt for a couple of days which we're really looking forward too then back to Brisbane!

Told you it was a long story! I think thats enough for now...tempt you to all start reading again!

Love to you all from both of us (i think Dave may have fallen asleep), not so far away till we see you....

Love Katie and Dave xxoxoxoxo

2007-07-22T00:30:00.000+09:30

Hello from the Lost Travelers!

Yes, we are still alive and well and currently in Dublin, Ireland, enjoying some Guinness before going back to the grind of job hunting (maybe). Since leaving Paris we went to the UK to visit my (Katie's) rellies for a couple of weeks and this brings us to now in Dublin which is an early birthday present for me from my parents (for the 12th August).

So we will renew our promise to post some photos on here when we get back to my Dad's later next week...this time we really will. We promise.

Ok, so keep on the lookout for our next post (and also any jobs you may find for us) and we will speak to you all again soon.

Lots of love and missing you all,

Katie and David xxxx

2007-07-07T20:26:00.000+09:30

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick message to let all of you know that we are still alive and we find ourselves now in Shropshire, England.

Tomorrow or some time we will upload some photos from Paris and let you know what is going on in the next couple of weeks and what has been going on in those passed.

Much love to all,

sorry for the long absence,

Love Katie and David.

2007-06-17T02:14:00.000+09:30

Well, well, well...
The lonesome traveller returns and returns the not-so lonesome traveller anymore! Sure i'm used to talking out loud but i'm not used to a response, especially one with such a sweet tone. Katie and i have returned from our little trip to the country (12 days in total...maybe a little longer than expected) and it was uneventful and glorious but only after a spritely 10km walk with 40 kilo backpacks; a clean and non-shared shower and kitchen was good enough reward.

Either way Katie and i are back in paris and we are gearing up to job hunt and appartment hunt and it's beggining to feel like there will be way, way too much to blog about but we will try!

Lots of love to all, and for those who haven't received responses yet to emails they are coming and finally HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!!!! whos 21st we missed, but i promise to make it up to you with a pair of something tight or loose or cool clothes-wise from Paris, if we can afford to buy bread and milk.

Lots of Love

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Au Revoir!

2007-06-03T01:12:00.000+09:30

Bonjour!

This is Katie and David reunited at long last in Paris. After everything possible going wrong with our flights, connections, transfers and then lastly trying to find each other at the airport, we are here safely after, in the end, having to meet up in Paris, at the hotel instead of the airport!

It is fantastic and surreal to finally meet up after way too long in foreign places. We had planned this trip on our first date and cannot quite believe we are finally here! Our hotel is smack bang in the middle of the action; two minutes walk to the Sacre Coéur and steps away from the Moulin Rougè.

So from here we go to my (Katie's) Uncles house in the North of France in the area of Normandy for about a week and we will have no phone or internet there. After this we will be back in Paris and back to the real world of trying to find jobs/apartment/learn Français (see its coming along nicely!) etc.

So we'll write soon, probably in about a week or so.

Lots of Love,

Katie and David

xxx

P.S. Liz was right; it was the longest flight of our lives. It took 2 months to get here!

2007-05-30T22:22:00.000+09:30

Hello!

I'm back in Bangkok now after spending a week down in the Thai Islands, Koh Phi Phi Island to be exact. It was so beautiful and pretty much all i did was eat, sleep, swim and sunbake! I stayed in a cute little bamboo hut on the beach, which i paid only a couple of dollars for, it was really nice. I was planning on only a few days, but those few days quite easily turned into longer! There's still alot of work going on there from the Tsunami, lots of pictures of before and after. It was quite shocking seeing the difference of course, being there in a restaurant and seeing pictures of what it used to be like.

Koh Phi Phi is also the place they filmed 'The Beach' with Leo DiCaprio so of course i took a boat ride around the islands (there are two Phi Phi Islands; Koh Phi Phi Don where i stayed and Koh Phi Phi Lay where no one is allowed to live, but is the place they did the filming), and stopped at the beach of 'The Beach', if that makes sense! It was really beautiful like all of that area but you can tell that they did alot of photoshopping for the film. So i went snorkelling and swimming all day and then the next day i did yet another hike in my flip-flops(!) with a couple of friends to the other side of the island to a quieter beach. We caught a taxi boat back and on the way the guy was like; "You want to go cliff jumping?" so of course we said yes, that was pretty cool, seen as normally you pay for a separate trip to go and do that! Then he said he had to go and get his fishing net in and would we like to go too and see? So we went and did that and at that point it was sunset so we watched the sunset and a couple of the other girls on the boat wanted to pull the net in (which was 300mtres long) in, so he let them do that. It was pretty awesome to see, there were a few fish and crabs, but the most exciting were two octopus and one shark! Yep, one shark, no kidding!

So now im in Bangkok and i spent the day window shopping (yes mum, i was being very good and didn't buy anything!) and wishing i could buy everything! Tomorrow i fly to Paris in the evening so the next blog will be from both Dave and I! I'm just itching to get to France now! So close!

Sorry to those of you whom i haven't emailed back yet, i will do as soon as i can! Love and miss you all,

Love Katie!
xxx

2007-05-30T06:11:00.001+09:30

Back in New York, again.

I left Provincetown this morning.

There is a quote that says that Provincetown is the place that you can turn your back on the whole of America and i figure that's fairly approriate since i travelled from one side to the other in two great months that took me from Venice Beach to Cape Cod. I leave for Paris on the 31st of May my time.

Maybe some photos tomorrow and i will call home for those wondering. Sorry!

Lots of Love,

From David in America

2007-05-26T01:31:00.000+09:30

Hello!

I thought i better move this thing on from the depressing top post it is currently at. I am now in Boston where it is 96 degrees Farenheit or 36 degrees Celsius; having literally come from two jumpers and overcoat weather in Canada it was a shock to the system. Here in Boston everyone seems tough and irish and Catholic and they all where the name 'Boston' somewhere on there clothing; can't imagine walking around home with 'Brisbane' emblazoned on my t-shirt and cap. The hostel i am staying in is pretty expensive (a Boston policy it seems) but it is nice and has a TV in the room that i roasted in last night. The manager, to my amusement, is 9 parts Norman Bates and 1 part Norman Bates' Mother which for those of you who have seen Hitchcock's Psycho means 10 parts crazy. When checking in he thought it apporiate to stall for 5 minutes, dead still and gentle sway to the chords of Them coming over the radio; freaked me out a little bit.

Either way things are fine. It is planned to go to Harvard this evening and meet up with one of Liz's many globally mobile friends. That should be cool.

Katie, she tells me, is lazing about the beaches of Thailand at the same location that 'The Beach' was filmed. Today she goes to the limestone cliff that the young DiCaprio jumps from in the film. Pretty awesome.

Hope everyone is keeping well,

Love david xoxoxoxo

p.s. 5 or 6 days till France depending on what hemisphere you're in. Bloggers will unite!

2007-05-23T02:19:00.000+09:30

Ok, so I suppose the purpose of this blog was to depict the ups and downs of travelling and unfortuntely today is a definate low. Last night while i was sleeping i had my beautiful old German camera stolen from under my nose. It was literally 5cm max from my face. Of course, Katie had given it to me as a gift.

It was really my only valued pocession so insurance is really no condolence, but, Dad, anything we can do? I went to the police station and all that.

Ok, so sorry about that. I'll go back to staring off into the distance.

Dave.

This is a photo i took of Katie and Macca back in Australia with said camera:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EKOgDQnhDBY/RkobTFjuUmI/AAAAAAAAAG8/wXj9aJCGq_g/s1600-h/590144-R1-021-9.jpg

2007-05-21T18:15:00.000+09:30

Some more photos..for some reason the computer won't let me put them all up at once so i have to do it in parts, also it keeps deleting things and its all in Thai so i have to guess what i'm doing and just click randomly! Top photo is of (left to right) Mike, Kat, Ryan and Jess on the mountain. Then there is another one of the waterfall in Laos, a couple of a temple and one of us at a very posh hotel bar in Bangkok that we went to last night to meet one of the guys friends. I noted on walking through the front doors the sign with the dress code on also stated, and i kid you not; 'No backpackers', it made me laugh, they actually had to lend us all clothes too as we were to daggy to enter! I'm just all class aren't i?!
I'm getting on a bus in a couple of hours for Koh Phi Phi island so next time you'll hear from me i'll be kicking back on the beach! Love Katie

2007-05-21T18:02:00.000+09:30

A few photos of recent events; the sunrise from the top of Phu Kadung Mountain where we went camping and a couple of shots of the waterfall we went to in Laos.

2007-05-20T15:44:00.000+09:30

Well aside from learning French, which should really be my priority i know, i have learnt some Thai in the past few weeks. This provides both useful and hilarious to the locals who find it especially funny when you barter with them in Thai. Very strange but hey.
So the last time i blogged i believe i was in Vientiane in Laos and writing about how the next day i would head back in Thailand with a new group of people and go camping up a mountain. Well i left the internet cafe, bumped into Jess who was having the passport trouble and in short she had to leave Laos asap, so we packed our bags and jumped straight into a tuk-tuk headed for the border. It has ended up being the craziest, fun-filled and packed few days i've had on this trip. Basically it went like this: We left Laos, crossed the border and 8 buses/tuk-tuks and 24hrs later we arrived at the bottom of the mountain. For some reason the Lonely Planet has only one tiny paragraph on this mountain and the trek up it, which i find very strange because backpackers would love it, even though it is way, way off the beaten track! So we left all of our stuff two bus trips back at a hostel as there is nowhere for it at the bottom of the mountain and there was no way that we were lugging our stuff up there. We have to have been THE most unorganised, chaotic bunch of people i have ever seen, somehow we didn't prepare whatsoever and ended up climbing this mountain of 1200m (yes, i'm not kidding) with less than a litre of water each, one mango between six of us, no spare clothes, only a few of us had a jumper and waterproof clothing (i was one of them you'll be please to know mum!) a toothbrush and in flip-flops. Don't ask why, i'll never know, it was crazy, but extremely good fun! So the main idea of going up this mountain was to watch the sunset and sunrise, we missed the sunset because it was so cloudy and you couldn't see anything but the rain and dark clouds. We got given a tent and some very smelly blankets at the top (yes we forgot sleeping bags too) but the leeches were on the prowl and even though we got given some leech preventing powder we got attacked, it was like the Blob! So we got moved to an army tent that was pitched indoors and woke up at 4:30am to see the sunrise. It was still quite cloudy, but pretty and worth it all the same. Then it was time to walk back down and by this time my feet were so blistered from the flip-flops that i had to go barefoot. My feet at the end were in such bad condition, so bruised! I'm very glad we did it though, it was away from any tourists and something very different to do. Apparently locals youths go up the mountain to camp and drink as a Spring Break type thing!
So another 4 buses later and we are back in Bangkok and i am now going to go and buy my ticket to the islands today to leave tomorrow. I plan on sitting and lazing around on the beach for the remainder of my trip! Then bring on Paris! I spoke to Dave a few days ago for the first time on the trip which was fantastic!
Hope you are all well, Janelle i hope you enjoyed Toronto!
Love Katie xxx

2007-05-19T12:19:00.000+09:30

Hello again for the last time from Toronto.

Mum and I farewell tomorrow; i go to Montreal (Elise, i heard you have been and loved it. Any emailed recommendations would be greatly appreciated davidyoung4@hotmail.com) and mum goes back to Australia. In the past two days we have been to both Niagara Falls and the CN Tower which is the tallest building/tower/thing in the world. Here are some photos of those events as the internet and the photos may be a distant memory by the time i get to France and Katie and I sell our clothes on the street for a sweet, sweet taste of blue vein cheese:

And a little still-life shoe-study in the hotel room...

Converted hotel room; the Marriott Hostel:

Thanks for the comments again and everyone stay safe and stress free during any kind of study/assignment/busy work season. Blood pressure...blood pressure...

Love David.

p.s. i spoke to Katie in the phone for the first time two nights ago; bring on Paris.

p.s.s. mum is going to kill me for that photo of her; sorry. Liz will love me for it.

2007-05-17T13:44:00.000+09:30

Hello! Well it's been a while since I've blogged, but i do have good reason! Right now i'm in Laos in the Capital, Vientiane. In the last few days i've been doing some seriously intense travelling, it's been go, go, go, i just haven't stopped and now i have a day here to catch up and slow down. I'm pretty tired out! So i can't remember what i last wrote but since bangkok i headed North to a place called Chiang Mai, which was quite nice, didn't grab me really but still it was pretty. I took a Thai cooking course there which was excellent so now i can cook you all some fantastic dishes...famous last words i think! No but really, it was great and you get a cook book at the end so i can cook some of the things i learnt there.
From there i headed into Laos with a couple of guys i met on the bus to Chiang Mai, one Scot, one from the UK and also one of the guys girlfriends, Om from Thailand. So we had to catch a slow boat from the border down to the first town called Luang Prabang. The boat took two days and i think 'slow' boat is an understatement...it was hell. Ok so i exaggerate a bit there, it was great for about 3 hours, beautiful scenery, different way to travel, exciting and all but after that when they just keep stopping and keep packing on more and more people it got a little frustrating. It acted as a kind of bus for the locals too and so we were all squashed onto the floor, people standing everywhere, not enough seats, bags chucked on top of you. I had a baby put on top of me while the mother went to sleep! Very cute for about 2 hours and then after being kicked and bitten and grabbed at for that long i got a little grumpy!! Got some great photos though. Plus the fact that they would say it's only 6 hours on the boat and "we're nearly there", then we would take about 8hours! So two days of 8 hours each was quite enough for me! Luang Prabang is a Heritage listed twon so it's very well kept, very pretty and very French! So we went to some amazing waterfalls there and rented bikes, which was good fun! We went out to the only club there too which was just locals, that was really good to see, and being the only western female there was cool because i had at last got away from any tourists! It was something different. Then we went down to Vang Vieng where the famous tubing happens! Basically you rent a rubber tube, stick it in the river, hop in and off you go. Very touristy really but great great fun! There are rope swings and places to drink the whole way down, you can buy a beer and get free jumps and then hop back into your ring and keep floating with your beer! Most people are pretty intoxicated by the end, it's few kilometres long the river so we took about 4-5 hours floating along until the sun set amoung these beautiful mountins that we were at the base of. The rope swings were fantastic, very high and very hard to hold onto after a few drinks!
After this we half took a tuk-tuk (little mini-van type thing thats open air) and half kayaked down to the capital where i am now, Vientiane. the kayaking was fun, a few rapids (i didn't capsize, very impressed with that!) and some cliff jumping along the way. So now i'm here and travelling with a different group of people, 5 others, some from the UK and some from the States. Really cool people and from here we are hopefully going to go back into Thailand and go camping up this mountain to watch the sunset and sunrise which is supposed to be stunning, then back to Bangkok and onto the islands! I'm dying to get to the beach! So we'll see about the camping because the tourist police took one of my friends passports!
So apart from that i'm doing well, looking forward to France now! Only two weeks left!
Will put some photos up when i get the chance.

Hope your all keeping well,

Love Katie xx

2007-05-16T05:47:00.000+09:30

Torontorion or Canberrians, same thing.

So I am still just taking it easy in Toronto, it seems there is not much else to do other than take it easy here. I admit i'm not looking too hard for the 'hip' and 'young' areas but it seems like pretty slow going around here ("Oooo, Toronno' ay..."). Either way it has given me the chance to sleep a bit in a good bed and organise photos and plans for next week. Here are some photos that are pretty random and steer away from the touristy fair; just because:

R.I.P Bobby Kennedy

Things got a little rough and windy at Ocean Beach, San Diego

Texans drinking Fosters, at there request of course, none of that filth for me!

Vietnam Memorial, D.C.

A fraction too much friction; almost walked out of my pants

Kananbie, Dayboro

xoxo

David

2007-05-13T08:33:00.000+09:30

From Toronto

Hell again, this time from the downtown Marriott Hotel in Toronto where i have met up with my mother and she is putting me up in a 4 star classy hotel room until the 19th of May; she is here for a conference. Good timing i know. I'm currently sitting in the sports bar downstairs which has free wireless internet (all for the cost of drinking a coke slowly for three hours) so i will put up some photos soon if anyone is interested.

Katie i believe is either in or on her way to Laos and i'm not sure about the internet but hopefully we'll be hearing from her soon as well.

So everyone stay happy and i'll hear from you soon.

Love David

xoxo

p.s. how was AIH? (for those who know what i'm talking about)

Last word to Lady of Liberty...

2007-05-08T05:23:00.000+09:30

Hello Again.

So i am back from Washington D.C., after seeing some incredible things and i'm in New York again for a few days until i catch a train to Toronto to make first family contact with Mum. The last time i made a proper post i was in New York, but minus the photos so i'll try and show you some New York, celebrities and D.C.

The Financial District, Lower Manhatten etc (World Trade Centre Towers stood on the right hand side)

Chrysler Building and friends

Strawberry Fields (forever), Central Park

"Ok George, let's have a look at what you have done with the Penske file" (Seinfeld)

The Brooklyn Bridge

Christopher Walken (!!!!)

the Washington Monument

Congress, The Hill

Natural History Museum, D.C. (David Attenborough eat your heart out)

The White House

Lincoln Memorial

Ok, so there are just a few of the many, many i have and like Katie i wish i could upload, but it takes and age to put them up and i don't want to spoil the 5 hour slide nights i'll be having (god knows what year that will be). Generally i have found America to be a very enjoyable place to be and very easy to travel around by myself. The many quirks of the people here keep things interesting. It is true that meal portions are ginourmous; i didn't noticed until the second week thinking that i was getting more bang for my buck but i was really getting more fat through my arteries. Things are also pretty cheap, especially alcohol (go figure), public transport and people willing to help abound at all locations (when i say help, i mean grunt and point, but that's helpful enough). It's also worth mentioning that i have found New York the safest place i have been so far. I was walking around Brooklyn at 1am this morning and it was safe. I have a feeling those who make trouble can't afford to live here anymore.

Anyway, i hope everyone is well and keep commenting.

Love to all.

David.

2007-05-05T18:48:00.000+09:30

More photos! Ok, so obviously the Rhino was from Chitwan, i took it from the Elephant back ride, then there is me ontop of a bus on the way to Pokhara from Chitwan. The 'Reclining Buddha' in Bangkok, the main lake that Pokhara is situated around 'Phewa Tal', and last is Kate and I in Bangkok.

I had to restrain myself from adding more and more photos! Bangkok is amazing, the tourist strip is Khao San Road and it's crazy, just like what i imagine Vegas to be like, just smaller! The road is cut of to traffic at night and it is packed with lit-up signs, street vendours, who make amazing Pad Thai, my new favourite dish! And shop, upon shop, upon shop. It really is crazy! I was walking down the main road (Khao San) at 1am and I'm not kidding, it was as busy then, if not more than at 2pm and its pretty packed then! It's really quite safe and it's just like walking around a shopping mall 24/7. The heat is full-on, I don't think 10 showers would fix it, but its a nice change to freezing mountains! I'm travelling with a girl called Kate from the UK, she goes to the islands on Monday and I'm leaving Sunday night by bus for Chang Mai (in the North) then i'm heading over to Laos, going all through there hopefully and back to Bangkok. Unfortunately i don't think i will have time for the islands, but we will see! I will definately be coming back here though! I'm really loving it!
Last night walking down Khao San road, there are lots of ice-cream cart type things that are filled with beer and people sitting on stools on the sides of the streets drinking, it's like an outdoor pub, except it runs for a large part of the street. Anyway, the point is, there are people advertising with signs trying to get you to go and buy a drink and last night i saw the funniest one, it said: "Small beer 30 baht, bucket beer 50 baht, WE DO NOT CHECK ID". I just thought that was hilarious! Police walking past and they don't seem to care, can you imagine what would happen if a pub in Australia did that?

Blog again soon, miss you all and thank you for your comments!

Love Katie xxx

2007-05-05T18:18:00.000+09:30

Some photos from Chitwan National Park, Nepal. The photo of the one Elephant on his own is only about 4 months old! The one with the boat in was the view from my Guesthouse.

2007-05-01T20:23:00.000+09:30

So by the sounds of it Dave is doing far better than i in spotting celebrities seen as the only 'famous personality' around here is Richard Gere, who is Kathmandu because he apparently had to leave India because he was in some sort of trouble for kissing a Bollywood Star.

Anyway it is my last day in Nepal, i fly out to Bangkok tomorrow and im feeling a mixture of saddness for leaving this place and excitement for the next part of the adventure! Although i do have to say there are a couple of things i won't miss. The main one being the haggling and constant in-your-face "You want to buy this?" "No, thank-you", "Yes, yes, you buy, i give good price", sorry but did you completely ignore what i said? I don't need a miniture violin or the like. And the internet, i actually resort to playing solitare while waiting for the computer to load to prevent myself from breaking it out of frustration! Even though those things are abit annoying i really love Nepal and i will definately come back some day. The people are lovely, very friendly and the countryside is amazing!

Since Pokhara one of the guys i was travelling with, Milan, went home and Markus and i came to KTM. He rides a motorbike and so i got a ride, which was great fun! It was a really great way to see some amazing scenery and things that i wouldn't have otherwise seen from a bus window. All the rice fields carved into the mountain sides, we stopped at a couple of road-side homes and ate there, which was great because there was no touism and it was in people's homes. Although i did feel abit like i was in a zoo, sitting there eating and the whole family will come out, get chairs and just sit around you, staring and watching you eat. But they were lovely. The ride took about 5 hrs, to begin with it was very comfortable because i had a back-rest and the bags were all tied on around me and under my arms so i had arm-rests, looked abit like i was kicking back in a comfy armchair! I looked like lady muck just sitting there, literally too, as we got covered in dirt from the roads (which were ok for the most part, abit bumpy!) and exhaust fumes coming from trucks and buses. So when we got off i was black in the face, no kidding. It looked like i hadn't washed my face in three weeks! After about 2hrs straight though it felt like i was sitting on a plank of wood, very painful, especially on the bumpy roads! The traffic itself is interesting, there are no road rules, so long as you beep to overtake and generally stick to your side of the road, it was quite crazy! There are security check point type things along the way too, i think they are pretty much there to stop and charge tourists for using the roads, but being on a bike we just zoomed on through, the guards trying furiously to wave us in and me on the back waving to them!

I was having breakfast this morning and saw a kind of protest march go past and when i asked someone what it was for they told me it was the Maoist's protesting. I don't know what they were saying or anything.

Also saw a wedding yesterday, that was really cool to see, they have a brass band marching along infront and then a car with the newlyweds in thats decorated elaboratly. Very cool.
Dave was saying earlier that he's finding it hard to blog because there is so much to say and i know what he means! I think of so many things and then get to writing and forget!
I know i won't miss some of the music here! Most of it consists of Avril Lavigne, the Mackerina and S Club 7. I am ashamed to say that this was also the extent of our music knowledge on the trek. While walking we would all sing and all anyone could think of or knew the words too were these kinds of songs. Britney Spears was also a favourite! And then of course it would get stuck in our heads and no one could think of any other songs!

I will blog again from Thailand, hope you are all well! Keep commenting please!

Love Katie xxx

P.S. I have just waited half an hour for this internet to load...i am so annoyed!

2007-04-30T23:50:00.000+09:30

Haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a deo scito?
I went here for Sunday Mass yesterday. The place of my Favourite West Wing episode and many other significant events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_National_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Cathedrals

Love Dave
xoxox

p.s. photos soon if i can find an internet cafe.
p.s.s. Yes mum...eating fruit and going to Mass

2007-04-29T04:53:00.000+09:30

Ooo Challenges!
Having been set some celebrity spotting challenges by my dear and loving family I willfully accept (but don't get your hopes up too much, even though i saw a celebrity everyday i was in New York.)
I have just arrived in D.C. on the Greyhound bus out of New York and it was a pleasent journey. I was thinking though, since i am in D.C. (District of Columbia, for those in the peanut gallery) at such a momentous time in history (possibly the worst American President ever who started a war with disasterous long term effects with the possiblity of having the worst legacy ever left behind by a Commander in Chief), what should i do when i visit the White House? I am willing to accept some substantial travel funds deposited into my bank account for a photo of me, with a Snow Peacock, mooning the White House.

Please place your bids!

Love CIA suspect #44450978 (Young, David JP)

2007-04-28T01:15:00.000+09:30

Magnet
Here i am in New York. I was thinking, you know, I might see some celebrities, playground of the rich and famous after all, but it has been considerably ridiculous how many i have seen. Here is the list, so far:
Robert De Niro
Christopher Walken
David Bowie
Faye Dunaway
Kevin Bacon
Whoopi Goldberg
Minnie Driver
Norman Mailer (author)
Trump's Daughter
Brian Cox
and yesterday i saw Josh Hartnett filming a movie (this one http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470679/) in the street about 2 blocks from where i am staying. I stood and marvelled at the filming and the cameras and the process for about 2 hours.

So who knows who it will be tomorrow. I have photos of all of these sightings as well, even if they are in the distance.

So even if it is bucketing with rain outside in New York right now i can always look at my photos of Robert De Niro and know i was in his precense.

Everybody stop working, doing assignments, etc; go overseas!

Love David

2007-04-27T18:00:00.000+09:30

Not much to be said for the last couple of days; pretty much all I've done is laze around! I changed Guest Houses this morning so i'm now only paying about 80 cents a night, i thought that was something to note! I did however realize that i missed out on a couple of crucial things to say about my trek, the first being the flight into Lukla. This was exciting to say the least! It's this tiny plane that seats about 12 people, 'Yeti Airlines', the door doesn't close properly, just a kind of latch and sitting next to the door was quite nerve-racking as it didn't seem to quite fit properly, so you could see outside through the cracks! They do however serve the best sweets! Hard boiled chocolate eclair flavour! So the actual flight was fine, amazing scenery...obviously! The best/scariest part, depending on your viewpoint, was the landing. We dropped in height incredibly quickly and it suddenly went pitch black, you couldn't even see out the windows, then we shifted position and you could see that we were completely amoung the mountains, you could almost reach out and touch them. Then we saw the airstrip ahead which is 180m long, a huge drop-off on one end and he other end is a brick wall. Not much room for error, oh and the strip is actually angled up slightly. So it was a little scary, but really really exciting! We landed and pretty much straight away swung off to the right to a little flat area and stopped. Good pilots! So that was pretty cool.

The other thing i wanted to write about were the lodges we stayed in, or rather, the rooms. All the places we stayed were twin beds so i shared with Suzanne the whole time, but if you can imagine all the horror films you've ever seen, the room that the 'killer' always keeps his victims. Those were our bedrooms! It was really quite freaky, no lights, sometimes the walls were made of dirt and the floors weren't quite finished, long corridors. Greg took great delight in talking about various horror films before i went to bed so i got really freaked out! I mean, the lodges were nice and the rooms weren't so bad, but when it started to get dark...well i guess our imaginations got caught up in it too! In a fair few of the places too it was just like we were sleeping outside, just with a piece of wood over our heads! But all the same it was fine!

So i just walked outside from where i'm sitting to find a toilet and someone pointed out this massive Marijuana plant growing wild, then i looked around and it's pretty common. Crazy!

Until next time...i have some more lazing around to do!

Love Katie.

2007-04-26T17:36:00.000+09:30

More photos and more to come when i get the latest ones onto CD. The first one is of Patan Durbar Square in Kathmandu. (Kathmandu is made up of three squares like this). And the second is of Boudnath Stupa, again in Kathmandu.

2007-04-26T17:07:00.000+09:30

Hello! So right now I’m in Pokhara, which although I haven’t seen much of yet, seems really beautiful. Set on a lakeside with the mountains rising around you (so I have been told, the clouds are too low today). So I will go exploring shortly, since finishing the trek and going to Chitwan I’ve adopted a ‘take-it-easy’ lifestyle, but I have plenty on time!

Chitwan was beautiful and a really nice change from the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. The landscape is amazing, very lush and green, rice paddies and Banana trees everywhere. It’s a lot flatter than around Kathmandu, the area is known as the ‘Terai’, lots of farmland and terraced rice paddies. Also, the buildings themselves were interesting, there are the usual but also a lot of homes made from Elephant grasses and mud. It was so so hot down there too, about 35 degrees when I got there and quite humid. Not as hot as Aus sometimes I know but compared to last week being below 0 it was quite a difference!…I became a nice shade of brown…depending on your interpretation of ‘Brown’!

When I arrived in Sauraha (the town, Chitwan is the area) I got picked up by the manager of the Guesthouse I would be staying at in a jeep, so we bumped the 3 km’s back to the lodge, which was beautiful, nice gardens and pagoda’s to hang out in and all for about AUS $7!

So while there I went for a canoe ride, saw some Croc’s (none man-eating thankfully as we were quite close, though I took this with a pinch of salt!), then to the ‘Elephant Breeding Centre’. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this, but I went anyway and it was as expected. Great to see the Elephants as they are such amazing, beautiful creatures, but it was so sad to see them in this unnatural environment. There were around twenty I guess, including the calves, and although the calves were able to run around in the enclosure, the adults were chained up to posts. Some of them with only one ankle tied, some had both front feet chained together and when I asked why this was I was told it was because those particular Elephants were more aggressive. It was quite sad, I didn’t enjoy it and just wanted to leave, although it was fun to watch the calves playing, they were play fighting and throwing dirt around, then they would come up to me and try to grab my feet with their trunks. It was nice to watch!

I also went to see the Elephant bathing. The village I was staying in was situated along side of a river, so most of the lodges backed onto the river and I could just walk out the back gate and watch the Elephants bath. So my guide took me down to watch and I had heard of people being able to swim with the Elephants but I got the impression that I would just be watching. Anyway we got there and suddenly I was asked if I could swim and to get on the back of an Elephant! So I got to swim with them, which was really exciting! They lift you with their trunks and throw you off into the water and shower you with their trunks! It was really fun and the area around the river is just like being on a beach, nice (ish) water, pagoda’s with thatched roofs, reclining chairs etc. So naturally I spent the rest of my day there watching the Elephants and drinking tea! I met a couple of guys from Germany and Belgium there too, so at the moment I’m traveling with them. I also took an Elephant-back Safari and all I can say is don’t do it and if you do go with friends. I was on for about 10mins and decided it was a really bad idea. I felt awful for doing it, that poor Elephant, but I couldn’t get off as we were in the middle of the Jungle and it’s quite dangerous in there. Apparently it’s really hard to see any wildlife, but we saw about seven (including the young ) of the endangered one-horned Rhino, we got up really close so that was nice. Didn’t see anything else except Stag and birds. Only four people went (that’s all that can fit) and you sit on this square wooden platform type thing. It’s really really uncomfortable, plus I was squished next to this (excuse my choice of words) fat, smelly guy who spent most of the time on his mobile, smoking, leaning back on me and pushing me into the thorned bushes. So I just got really grumpy unfortunately! At the end the Elephant started growling too, it’s a strange noise, not one I expected, more like a Lion’s roar. And our driver started hitting him with a stick because he tried to run off. It was horrible, I hated it and later I went back to the riverside to kick back and watch some more Elephant bathing with the German guys, but this time I really watched. I watched the handlers and how they treated the Elephants and it was appalling, I nearly got up and left, it was horrible. I was disgusted with myself for being a part of it the day before. But what’s done is done I guess.

So now I’m in Pokhara…5 hours on a bus here. Or 5 hours on the roof of a bus should I say! It was good fun, great views, but boy my butt at the end! Over the past 3 days my choice of transport has really taken it’s toll! Elephant back, jeep, bike-riding and bus roof-top riding!

So another long entry, I keep thinking of more from the trek too, but I’ll save that for another time! Dave keep up the star-spotting!

Love Katie xx

P.S. I think i broke a bone in my foot! We'll see how that goes!

2007-04-26T15:56:00.000+09:30

Ok so the photos are as follows -
Number 1: Can you guess? Yes, the mighty Everest herself!
Number 2: Me, sitting in a lodge absolutely exhausted! I could hardly keep my eyes open!
Number 3: View from Kala Patthar (5545m). The Khumbu Glacier below and the Himalaya beyond.
Number 4: Basecamp! Myself, Suzanne and our guide Subal.

2007-04-26T01:40:00.000+09:30

That's the Ziggy Stardust himself in the white suit at the top of the stairs. Yep, David Bowie! More better celebrity spotting photos soon...

2007-04-25T03:14:00.000+09:30

An amazing Jewish wedding in the Central Park fountain and me eating fruit! (Yes mum, volunterily!)

2007-04-24T08:20:00.000+09:30

2007-04-24T08:04:00.000+09:30

I saw these two today:

Oh, and this small piece of history:

2007-04-23T08:00:00.000+09:30

Photos, Photos, Photos.

Back again. I just went and got some food and went to the famous Strand bookstore (18 miles of books) and Other Music. New York i can see is going to be difficult to blog about purely because of the amount of things to say; for example on the way to the internet cafe i saw a 1920s-style marching band playing 'when the saints go marching in' walking down the street, seemingly for fun. So as a way to catch up here are some photos of the things i have seen over the past few weeks.

Awful day, unique photo though

Yosemite Valley, Giant Sequias

Yosemite Valley, Half Dome

Sea World, San Diego - this and the San Diego Zoo confirmed my disdain for animals in cages but jumping whales are always fun!

A typical dinner on a budget (just joking mum)

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

My good friend Nofr Iends from the Netherlands took this one.

So there are many, many, many more photos but they are taking ages to load so here this is a little taster and hopefully one day i can upload a lot more.

Hope everyone is well and healthy and happy. Tomorrow i will have been away for a month but it seems like a short amount of travelling and yet a long time until France...

Lots of Love

Dave xoxoxo

2007-04-23T05:28:00.000+09:30

Boo! From the East Village!
Ok, Ok so i made it to New York City and all stories, fables, poems and myths are true; it is the greatest place on Earth.

I have seen many, many things already in the short one day i have been here (even a famous blog celebrity i knew of in the first 20 minutes of being in the city) and i will come back to this internet cafe in a few hours as it is pretty cheap and i can upload some photos.

Just checking in for now.

I have to say this blog is a great way to keep in touch with everyone, i'm loving the comments. I'll keep my eyes out for the Snow Peacock while i'm here in New York as well. I think i may have seen it in Central Park reading the Times....

Talk soon.

Love Dave.

p.s. Awesome posts Katie, really awesome to hear about it in that detail. I agree with Ceri, little details that you give make it that much better.

2007-04-20T23:33:00.000+09:30

So i just realized how much i wrote yesterday...talk about mammoth! I just kept on writing! I do want to say thank you all so much for your comments though! It was really great to hear from you all! Thank you! I'm not really sure where i wrote up to and i can't bring myself to re-read that blog, so you'll just be getting sporadic bits of information! So i just reliazed that the computer has neither a CD drive or USB input so i'm afraid there will be no photos. Never mind, hopefully i can find somewhere with better computers at some point.

Since getting back off the mountain i have been really, really sick, therefore spending a good part of the last two days in bed. I'm not sure what it was or exactly the cause, although i have an idea. I think as i was vegetarian on the mountain (You would be too if you saw what i saw! They don't do any slaughtering on the mountains, they transport it all from Lukla and from Lukla to Basecamp return is 134km's, so you get the idea of how far, but they transport the meat again by porters in baskets, uncovered and skinned. You see the problem for meat-eaters!) Anyway, so for dinner my first day back i had meat and also i had wine at lunch and a cocktail with dinner (very nice though it was!) so i think my detoxed body hated me for throwing it back into normality a little too quickly. Anyway, I'm ok now, that's the main thing. I think i'll stay a vegetarian for a little while!

Today i did however feel spritely in the morning and go out shopping. God, the shopping here is like heaven! So cheap! So i went and bought 14 new release movies (The Departed etc) for AUS$10.50 total. I was pretty happy with that. Our guide from the trek, Subal, took Suzanne and I to the place he normally goes, said its good quality so that was nice. When he's not trekking he just hangs out in KTM where he lives and so he's been hanging out with us showing us around abit. Today he helped me book a bus to Chitwan National Park for 300 Rupees (about $6) so i leave for there on Sunday at 7am! It's so early because later the traffic gets so bad that the coaches can't fit in. And i got the price they noramlly give to Nepali Nationals, for tourists they usually charge more!

Oh, and i found this interesting; just outside of the district of Thamel where i'm staying (the tourist spot) there is a long, long road and on either side are two huge properties. On the left you have the Royal Palace and its surrounded by a low white brick wall and a high metal fence, but you can see in and photos are allowed through the fence. On the other side is a moroon/red brick wall thats about 4 or so metres high, you can't see through and above this is barbed wire fencing. In addition there are armed guards and signs saying "No photos". Guess which property this is? Yep, the US Embassy. I was quite shocked really, considering the other side is the Royal Palace! I think it was 2003 when the entire Royal family were found murdered in their home, King, Queen, two sons and one daughter. So now it is that King's brother who has taken to the throne. He is hugely disliked as many believe that it was him who murdered his family. So "Royal Nepal Airlines" has become just "Nepal Airlines" and on papers and the like "His Majesy" is scribbled out with a biro. Quite shocking really. Another piece of random information!

Ok so on Sunday i head off for Chitwan where i can take an 'Elephant Jungle Safari' and go to the Elephant breeding centre and Elephant bathing, that sort of thing. Then from there, depending, i might go to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. I'm not too sure about this yet though, we'll have to see how it goes. I can get there from Chitwan, but it's in the region of the 'Terai', this is the entire lower region of Nepal and recently there has been fighting down there with Northern India over fuel. So today they closed the Terai for three days, so i will just see whats happening from Chitwan and decide then. From Chitwan i will also head up to pokhara for a few days, this is where treks for the Annapurna region begin. Don't worry i won't be going on any long trek though! i've had my fill for a while, maybe just a few walks or something would be nice, it's set on a lakeside so it'll be nice and relaxing i should think! Then i will be back in KTM around the following saturday/sunday and i fly out to Bangkok on the 2nd May! Exciting stuff!

So i'm going to go and get some dinner, before this internet breaks again! It's prone.

Speak again soon, Love Katie xx

P.S. Dave, have a good flight to NY! Wish i was there to take a photo of you when you get to Times Square!

2007-04-20T00:17:00.000+09:30

Namaste! Hello! I'm back, where to start? Well, i made it! I got to the top no troubles and my gosh; it was the hardest, most exhausting, difficult, amazing and rewarding thing i've ever done! It was absolutely fantastic and i have no idea where to begin! Ok so to start with i should say that upon meeting the group we were told that this was the first Gecko's group to go to Basecamp, before this they only did it through Peregrine (the company i think John, Dave's dad was thinking of going with). So that was a nice surprise and we all made. There were six in the group and it worked out well. There were a couple from Sydney; Mel and Greg, two guys; James from Melbourne and Russell from Sydney. Then Suzanne from the UK, very close to where I'm from. So it was nice and small, we had a main leader Subal and two other guides who we met at Lukla; Prem (meaning 'Life') and Jeevan (meaning 'Love'). We also had three porters, and man, do not underestimate these guys. This is porter not in the sense that they have Yaks that they heard along, this is these three guys between them carrying our six bags plus two for the guides. And they don't carry them on their backs, no this all goes on their heads. I'm not kidding! The porters of the Himalaylas are amazing, some of them use baskets that they balance things on but basically (it's very hard to explain, i'll try and put a picture up) they tie everything together, then have one strap that they place across their foreheads and thats it. They carry it like that. And they kick our butts...always at the top before us! I felt like an old lady! Upon getting to the top though they are always smiling at you and probably thinking, "You crazy person, what are you doing!"
Gosh, there is so much to write i have no idea where to start. While trekking i kept thinking of things to write here and now i can't remember them all. One thing that they don't prepare you for on this trip is the sitting around. Its the hardest part. Basically, every day we would get up early and start walking at about 8:30am. Whoever has my itinerary will see that most of the days are around 5 hours walking. We, however halved all of these times. We made really good progress, we would ask our guide how long he thought we would take on a certain day and quite often it wouldn't take that long. We were walking quite fast. So we would arrive at our destinations generally around 11am and then that would be it until the next morning. We could go on optional hikes, which we did do on our acclimatisation days (we had two) but really, when we arrived there would be nothing more to see in the villages that we stayed at. So it became our habit of arriving, ordering lunch, which would take an hour, then we played cards(Shithead was the favourite! If anyone knows this game they will know how brilliant it is!), read, wrote in our journals and, sad as this sounds, see how long we can hang out until our next hot chocolate or tea or something of the sort. I've never drank so much hot chocolate in my life! Then there would be dinner. "Is it too early to decide what i'm ordering yet?" "Suzanne, its only 4pm". This was what filled the time, when to choose dinner, when to order dinner and when to have dinner. After that the same process would occur for breakfast! It does sound really sad, but honestly, there is nothing else to do, it is SO cold up there, too cold to go outside. Although we did have very good weather for trekking. Typically the day would start bright blue skies, which is amazing to wake up too against the backdrop of 6000m plus mountains, then around midday the clouds would roll in for the rest of the day/night. But we only had rain twice and that was when we were just arriving into our destinations for that nights, very lucky. And it snowed a few times, mainly on the opposite mountain or the like though, but it was probably at the same altitude as us. It snowed on us once. We were hiking up to Dingboche (4410m) where we would spend two days and it snowed lightly for the last half an hour of walking. It melted when it hit the ground but grew heavier during the night. And man was it cold, i couldn't feel my fingers or toes and at the teahouse (we only stayed in teahouses) they don't put the fires on till late as most of them don't have wood, especially higher up where there are no trees. So they use cow dug, yes honestly, they stick them to walls and rockeries to dry out and then use them to fuel the fire. Very interesting! Lovely smell. Tip number 1: Don't do your hand-washing outside when its snowing with the locals. After 5 mins my hands were so cold i could hardly feel them, after 10 they were numb! You see, after our third stop at Namche Bazar (3440m) there are no taps, nothing at all like that, only a tube outside that spurts water. So this is very interesting on the washing front. Both yourself and clothing. Pretty much we didn't shower for over 10 days, and as there were no taps the only thing on offer were baby wipes! I don't think i have ever been so grubby and smelly in my entire life! All six of us smelt bad, got grumpy, had sunburn and windburn and chapped lips. But it was still brilliant!
The walking itself wasn't particularly bad, i mean don't get me wrong, it was hard, very hard, but the main thing that all of us found a challange was the altitude. At sea level we breath 20% oxygen, but at basecamp we only have 10%, so for a large portion of the trip we weren't getting much at all. You are only supposed to ascend 300m a day for proper acclimatisation, but there were times when we had to go about 700m up, this was only because there are no teahouses for quite a way at one point, so then we would have to have another day at the same height. Reading about it before i left its hard to grasp just how the altitude effects you, but it does take a huge toll on your body. You walk slower and get out of breath quicker. There were quite a few times when, not just our group but it seemed everyone, would try to stay up later (8:30 was a late night for us up there) purely because everyone was scared of going to sleep because of the breathing difficulties you can get up there. Everyone i spoke to had gone through it, waking up in the middle of the night and realizing that there is no oxygen in your lungs, so you panic and try to take deep gulps of air, but this only makes you worse. So you have to calm yourself and take small breaths. You have to try and sleep so that your body is straight to make it easier to breath. I don't mean to scare anybody. But still, Subal (our guide) said we were doing really well, he's never taken a group that not everyone had made it up to the top and he would tell us stories of his other treks when he would be woken up at 2am by a group member asking for oxygen.
Our trek leaders were fantastic, Subal, our main guide, lives in Kathmandu and is helping me to organise getting to Chitwan National Park etc. He really was brilliant, very patient which i think was needed with our constant questions the whole trek long; "Subal, what's that mountain called", "How high is it?" "What's it called again?", and unfortunately, the very childish "How much further Subal?" But that was a necessary question, not for the how much longer do we hve to keep walking, but more for us to understand where abouts we were in relation to everything else. The walking was fantastic, it felt great to get up every morning and walk for a few hours! Although Mel and Greg, at the risk of sounding mean, i don't really understand why they did it. Whinging the whole way up about the walking, the accomodation, wising they could have Burger King and then they practically bowled everyone else over getting down the mountain! And going down was one of the best parts, Spring had arrived, there were new buds and blossoms, new calves and puppies everywhere! (I nearly brought one back - very cute!)
Our other leaders were interesting characters; Prem and Jeevan. Prem was hilarious, wearing his down jacket even when it was stifling hot (from the walking) and only taking it off occasionally when it was cold. We all ended up going by whether he had his jacket on or not as to what we should wear that day! And he had a whistle. That was both funny and infuriating. He would usually lead the group and he would blow that damn whistle to stop for water breaks and then again to start yelling "Zoom, Zoom!" It was funny, just on the way back down (which were four long days of walking) it got so annoying, i nearly took it off him!
Sorry Siggie i had no sightings of the Sasquach, but i did see the famous "Yeti Skull". I just look like half a coconut, bit disappointing but never mind! We also saw plenty of Yaks, they're quite beautiful creatues, again i'll have to try and put some piccies up! An interesting fact though: Yaks can't go below 3000m as its to hot, so for below this they have a hybred of Yak and Cow which they call a 'Jokyo'. They look pretty similar, the Yak is just alot hairier!
So i know most people thought i was going to Basecamp on the 14th April, but we cahnged the intinerary at that point. Instead we climbed to Basecamp on no less than Friday 13th April. it was a very lucky day, we couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather! I have never seen such an amazing blue, maybe its because of where i was, either way it was outstanding. We walked all dy to get there, not so much hard walking, just bitterly cold! And whoever said Bsecamp it not so great...i really have no idea what they're talking about. Did they turn up with their eyes cosed? admittedly they have cleaned it up alot in the pst few years, but it was truely amazing! Walking in on the Khumbu glacier, the Khumbu icefall to your right (the way to the summit of Everest. There were people climbing down when we got there) and just surrounded by mountains. You could see some mountains in Tibet from there, and its quite large really. A conglomeration of yellow, green, orange and blue tents. It was amazing, and i'm happy to say i made it there first out of our group! But i am glad that you were all mentally wishing me up the mountain the next day as this was our ascent to Kala Patthar, our highest point of 5545m. We changed this to the next day as we wanted to do it at sunrise, so up we got at 5am, leaving at 5:45am, instantly i couldn't feel my feet or hands. My face was swollen with the cold, my fingers resembaled cheerio sausages; very attractive! And i found that really, really hard. That was my greatest challenge, i hadn't eaten before i left, no one had, we were tired because it's hard to sleep at altitude (and the cold of course) but Subal estimated an hour and a half. Only four of us went (Mel and Greg stayed back, i can't imagine this, i was getting myself up that last bit if it killed me!) the other 3 got up there in 1 hr 15 mins, i got up in 1 hr 25mins. So still good, i felt like i was going to pass out, but my gosh, the views from up there. I will never forget that, ever. It brought tears to my eyes. The sun rising up behind Everest, you could see the entire range of mountains, the Khumbu Glacier, basecamp, everything. It was so beautiful. Kala Patthar itself is interesting to say the least! Its kind of a triangluar shape, two sides just dropping away and the other is what you climb, its very steep and theres not much room for error, the whole thing is just huge rocks piled together. And of course at the top it is covered in Buddist player flags! Oh and it was Nepali New Year! 2064 in Nepali years so it was a good day to do it. Our guides preceded to scream some Nepali songs at the top of their lungs! It was quite amusing! Then we pretty much rolled down the mountain for some brekky, we got to see a Himalayan "Snow-Peacock" on the way down. Interesting thing, half chicken, half penguin! Makes an awful noise too!
Ok so i think i'll write some more tomorrow and see if i can put some photos up too. It's getting late here. Hope your all well out there!

Love Katie
xx

2007-04-13T02:58:00.000+09:30

Travel Challenge:
This is mainly targeted at my father.
Find the best way you can for me to get from San Diego to Flagstaff, Arizona...
I have had a look but with limited internet time and pesky internet lines it's hard to really look well. Try and hold out on the Greyhounds if you can. And it doesn't matter if you can't find anything; just thought i'd see what you came up with.
I have found a way for a total of around $100.

Thanks!

xoxoxo
David.

p.s. anyone can try this if you like...

More Important News:
Katie will be reaching Base Camp Everest on the 13th of April, so keep her in your thoughts for that day. I'm sure she is going as strong as ever. And we all miss her.

David (again)

2007-04-10T10:29:00.000+09:30

Hello from San Diego!

Well i made it on the bus here, although it was mightily hellish. I spent a rainy and cold and miserable Easter Sunday at Old Town (tourist trap type place with 'olde style' buildings and 'shoppes') then had enough and saw the very religious b-movie tribute film Grindhouse.

Today i just went and checked out Downtown San Diego and went to the harbour area. Tomorrow i think i'll be heading to Sea World, then the Zoo the day after, then probably Tijuana the day after that.

Anyway i hope everyone is doing well and not studying uni too hard, or working too hard or all of the above.

xoxo

David.

p.s. I forgot to tell you all i saw Larry King with his blonde wife and little children in San Francisco, shopping. Exciting.

2007-04-07T13:26:00.000+09:30

Goodbye, San Francisco!
Well tomorrow morning I farewell San Fran for San Diego on a 12 hour Greyhound voyage. Today i cycled the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog and visited the lovely little town Sausolito; then ferried back past Alcatraz.

This also signals the end of free high speed internet and great service at this hostel; who knows what San Diego and the rest of the trip holds for those two criteria.

I also have some news from Katie; she emailed from 3440 metres at Namche Bazaar! She says she is healthy and keeping safe which is good news.

Talk soon.

Love David xoxoxoxo.

2007-04-06T07:16:00.000+09:30

I decided to take a trip to Vegas on a whim and this is the end result. I'm not sure if this has gotten through to the Australian media yet but this happened just of the runway....only joking!! This is from Universal Studios in LA from the set of War of the Worlds. And more importantly there is colour and photos on the blog!

I decided instead of writing a heap of summaries I'll let the photos do the talking.

Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills.
The British guy i was with was getting very excited every time he saw a car that they only made 5000 of. He saw three of them here in the space of 20 minutes.

LA, Hollywood International Hostel
Lesson #1: Don't go to LA; Lesson #2: If you must go to LA, don't go to the Hollywood International Hostel.

Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater sights.

Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill, San Francisco
On the other hand, go straight to San Fran, it's a wonderful city. Small, charming, creative and friendly.

Walking to the Golden Gate Bridge - 3 hours in All Stars was painful but beautiful; Caught the bus back.

Anyway there is somewhat of an update. I was going to connect up my camera and get some photos of Yosemite and more of San Fran but it won't accept my camera; I'll have to wait till I get them burnt onto a disc.

Today i bought my Greyhound bus ticket to go to San Diego on Friday; a grueling 12 hours no less. Hopefully i will get to see some of the interesting Californian countryside; not just the backside of a fat American trying to get past me to the bathroom.

I saw the band Man Man last night and it was one of the most amazing shows i have ever seen. Dressed in tennis outfits and war paint, they set up in a circle on the stage and bashed junk yard instruments and growled for about 2 hours; was spectacular. Highly Recommended. And i got to use my 21st present coat last night as well (was still cold though) and it was very luxurious and good looking; thanks again present givers.

Anyway that's it. Thanks for reading, good to read from some of you in the comments, i will respond right now.

Hello to The Littles as well. I hope the bus renovation is treating you well; I wish i could have been there for that. Say hello for Lacey for me. I'm Katie is having a fantastic time up the mountain, hopefully altitude is treating her well.

Bye for now. xoxoxoxo

David.

p.s. i will be cycling the Golden Gate Bridge tomorrow and going to the City Lights Bookstore again so i can say i bought a book from there (Ginsberg, Dylan and Kerouac used to hang out there, get high, get drunk and hide in the basement from fans.)

2007-04-04T15:12:00.000+09:30

Hello...
I am back. Sorry it has been so much time between posts here. I have been to Yosemite and i will report on that in parts tomorrow probably; part 1 tomorrow, hopefully. I also went to the Google Offices in Mountain View, California to visit one of Elizabeth's (my sister) old university friends; obviously I will be talking in detail about that as well.

Missing you all.

xoxoxo

David.

p.s. what's been up with everyone there. Email me or comment here...besides the usual suspects who i am emailing constantly.

UPDATE:
ok, ok no post for today. I need to find time to catch up obviously. I booked a hostel in San Diego today, right on the beach and I'm very happy about that. I will be going there via a 12 hour Greyhound bus trip on Saturday the 7th of April. I'm also going to a Man Man gig tonight which should be cool. Obviously i will try and update progress tomorrow.

p.s. Katie is heading towards base camp as we speak, having the time of her life no less I'm sure.

2007-03-31T18:00:00.000+09:30

Hello! I'm still in Kathmandu and itching to start my trek! Its a beautiful city, lots of temples and things to see, but i feel like i've seen what i wanted to. I've also got into the back streets which was amazing, probably the best part. Out of the tourist spots. Now though i am feeling ready to get into the mountains...the pollution in town is pretty terrible too. If you look at the horizon there is a big thick wall of dirty looking cloud and you can just see the mountains through the haze. For those of you who i know are planning to come here in 2008, best to go with my hostel or a hotel to start with. I walked past a hostel i was planning on booking from home and i'm glad i didn't...the building was hanging on by a thread. So in a couple of days i'll start my trek, after that i'm going to go to Chitwan National Park, then Lumbini (birthplace of Buddha, its also Buddahs birthday when i'll be there!) then onto Pokhara hopefully and back to Kathmandu.

I was travelling with a guy from Sweden the other day and we took a rickshaw...i actually felt really bad doing so too. It was hard work for the guy and it made me feel really lazy, so i don't think i'll go on one again. Anyway, my point being, this guy i was travelling with kept pointing out things like 'oh, he hasn't oiled the chain on this', or 'they don't have proper brooms do they?'. Seriously, it drove me mad. Plus he wouldn't pay for entrance into some places, it got me in a pretty bad mood. I just couldn't believe it, what does he expect? And seriously, who goes to a country knowing NOTHING about the place and being completely ignorant. And he seemed abit shocked that i was here for the culture. ok ok calm.

So i guess my next blog will be after the trek! I hope all is well at home and wish me luck for getting up the mountain!

Love Katie

2007-03-27T07:38:00.000+09:30

Hello From LA. (Katie and I are setting you some seriously updated reading...how long will it last i wonder...)
Since i last posted i went to Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills which was something well worth seeing. The change in scenery is nothing short of dramatic; from closed down shops, mexican style street vendors and bums calling you mother****** to a Giant silver Rolls Royce, Astin Martins, Dolce & Gabbana. We even boarded a better metro bus to get into the area. Nontheless i felt much safer in these areas and the people weren't too snooty.

Today though has been the best. I went to Amoeba Records; a giant, giant warehouse of a store that would literally have a million records, books and dvds i.e. heaven. I bought a book i had been looking for called 'The Psyschic Soviet'; i will pass it around when i get home, its essays by this guy that relates rock n roll to politics.

In relation to photos and taking photos with my camera i haven't got a whole lot yet just because of the safety factor; not easy to whip out and whip back in my bag. But as soon as i can upload some i will.

This has been a rambling post.

Love David

p.s. I walked past a famous guy today in a bookstore and In-N-Out Burger (where Ms. Paris Hilton goes) but i can't think where he is from. Guy with glasses from comedy movies, usually plays the dumb guy. Looks a bit like the guy with glasses from the American The Office. I'll think of it...

2007-03-26T22:16:00.000+09:30

Hello again! So i thought i'd let everyone know that i'm in Nepal and loving it. A little tired from the two different culture shocks in two days, but nonetheless feeling very happy and excited! I got in this afternoon and found the hardest part being getting a taxi from the airport to town as you get hassled like you wouldn't believe. i quickly introduced myself to a couple of American guys though and they caught a taxi with me to my hostel so that was fine...apart from my door flying open a couple of times on corners! that was interesting, but the Nepalese really are very relaxed, the taxi driver stopped in the middle of the road to fix my door, backed traffic up but instead of them getting agitated and honking horns they just turned off the engine and waited, more interested than anything! So thats all my news really, internet shops are everywhere here so i will beable to email etc.Just about to go and look for some food now! Love you all; mum, Geoff i hope your relaxing at least a bit and Lacey isn't running you too ragged. Have fun on the bus trip!
Love Katie

2007-03-25T18:52:00.000+09:30

Well I'm here! I arrived in Thailand last night and haggled my way with taxis (taking Elise's advice of meter only) getting to my hostel at about midnight. The trip was fine, the only slightly worrying part being my taxi driver's love for speed and lack of indicators. All is fine though, I'm sitting here in i don't know what heat but feeling like ten showers won't help!
Haven't done too much since getting here...just had a sleep and a wander around. My hostel, it turns out is a fair way from the main 'attrations' of Bangkok (of which i've been told there aren't many) so i just wandered around this area...and my gosh the smells of food are just amazing, there's stall after stall! Although i still feel like i'm dreaming being over here i'm feeling very excited and happy!
As Dave said i did manage to embarrass myself infront of half my plane on the way here, spilling tea everywhere and looking like i'd had a very bad accident! Note to self: take spare clothes next time!
So tomorrow i fly to Nepal early and start the next part of my adventure. So until then, hope you are all well. Thanks again to everyone for coming to the airport to see me off!

Love Katie!

2007-03-25T13:02:00.000+09:30

So I made it! I am in LA on Hollywood Blvd overlooking the Kodak Theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, a crazy guy drumming on buckets and a giant Gap store glowing through the hostel common room; the lights are never on in here, the neons from outside light it up all night.

The first day i was buggered as hell due to pratically no sleep on the plane and then i stayed up to about midnight that night; that's about 20 hours or something without sleep, if not more.

I met up with some British blokes that night (from Kent and Somerset) and they nicely befriended me then they not so nicely took me to the Hooters across the street. For some beers of course, nothing more. "Oh she is fit, do you have to be fit to work here?..." Etc, etc. It was really perverted but pretty funny at the same time. most of the customers were with wives or young families; strange americans.

Today i went to Universal Studios to have a tour of the backlots and rides and the like. It was pretty good, more of a family thing with kind of gimmicky robotic dinosaurs etc, but worth a look.

Tomorrow i think i'm going to stop spending money constantly and go to the Museums or Venice Beach/Muscle Beach/Santa Monica.

Anyway best be off, thanks again to Siggie and Christian (and Katie and Mum and Dad of course) for coming to the airport for that tearful farewell; muchly appreciated. I hope everyone else is fine and if you sent me a message just before i left sorry i didn't respond i didn't have any credit.

Love you all...

Love David

P.s. Katie is good in Thailand (even though she spilt her tea on her pants on the plane making her look like she wet herself). She goes to Nepal today/soon/time zones??????

2007-03-17T13:07:00.001+10:30

Farewell Video Ezy! Thanks for the memories.

2007-01-21T13:13:00.000+10:30

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