Krabi, Thailand

I am here..

After a one hour taxi ride to the border, then a 5 hour train journey, then 4 hours on the bus!

I am heading to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow, praying for good weather.

N
xx

Khota Baru, Malaysia II

Hi all,

Well I have succussfully made it north, and can almost smell the Thai border. So here is what I have been up to:

Mike and I caught the bus from the Cameroon Highlands to KL on wednesday (I was feeling much better). We booked into a posh hotel for the night and went shopping. It was Mike's last night so he bought heaps of stuff, and we haggled like professionals.

On thursday we did a bit more shopping, (apparently - you can never have enough gifts for family and friends) before going our seperate ways in the afternoon. Mike had his flight to NZ that night, so he put me in a taxi to get to the local bus station to get a bus heading north. It was quite a wierd feeling heading off on my own, I was a bit nostalgic and excited about my future plans all at the same time. Now there was no set itinerary until my flight from Bangkok on the 13th December. I had had an amazing experience travelling with Mike, he was integral in creating some unforgetable memories in Africa. I drove away feeling so blessed to have experienced the past 6 weeks, knowing that I had made the right decision to come on this trip.

I caught a bus from KL to a town called Jerantut, where I stayed overnight before getting on a very small boat with an outboard engine and going to Taman Nagara National Park. It was a 3 hour journey, but I managed to sleep most of the way.

In Taman Nagara I sat around for most of the afternoon. I opened my travel journal and wrote an entry - it had been three years since I last had opened it - so I think it deserved some attention. I ended up chatting to some locals and had a relaxing afternoon. I went for dinner that night, and was informed that my dinner had been payed for by one of the local fellas I was chatting to. Wierd! Anyway, that night I went on a night jungle safari, a total waste of time, but I did get to meet some english people to trek with the next day. When I got back to my hut there was a note from the local guy asking me for a drink, he then turned up outside my hut and I politely thanked him for dinner and turned down a drink (it was 11.30pm!).

The following day I went trekking which was amazing. There was a jungle canopy suspended walkway, which we took, then we hiked up to a lookout and took another trail back down again. We were gone about 4 hours and came back very smelly, sweaty and muddy - I also had very bloody feet from 3 leech attacks! LOVELY!!! I have a photo por anyone who wants a look :-)

I never enjoyed a cold water shower so much in my life!

As it was saturday night I joined up with some other travellers and caught the boat across the river to the posh resort (I was staying on the poor backpackers side of the river which does not serve alcohol!) for a few drinks.

There ended up being 11 of us - 8 of whom were british. They threw us out just after 11pm and we caught the last boat back across the river. I was greeted by another note from said local asking me to join him to watch the Liverpool vs Man Utd game. I ignored note and went to bed...however was woken up after midnight by him knocking on my door trying to wake me. Needless to say, I pretended I did not hear him for the next 2 hours of knocking and calling my name. I did get a bit freaked out when he managed to get into the empty room next to mine, and knock on the wall next to my head. This was when I put my bag against the door - in case he could get a key - and generaly hoped and prayed for the best!

I did not get much sleep, and was really gald to get on a boat the next morning. He was waitng outside my room in the morning - but appeared to be happy enough with me saying that I was going on the 9am boat. Wierd hey!

So that morning I caught a boat back to Jerantut then jumped on the Jungle Railway for the 10 hour journey to Khota Baru. I had a fabulous nights sleep and am going to stay here for the day and head onto Thailand tomorrow!

Best run

Ngaira
xx

Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia

Hi guys,

I have been a bit quite since arriving in Asia - so here is the low down.

Flew in KL on friday morning at 6am. Checked our stuff into left luggage and caught a train into KL. Spent the day in KL, went up the twin towers, checked out some temples & mosques and went to some markets. We were running on a tight schedule as we had to be back at KL airport at 8pm for a flight at 9pm to Penang. We arrived back at the train station at 7.00pm to get the 28min express train to the airport. Only to find out that the rain storm earlier that afternoon had flooded the tracks - so we had to get a taxi to the airport instead which takes about 1 hour! Needless to say we told the cab driver to drive very quickly and we got to the airport with 5 mins to spare.

We had decided on a military precision plan to get our backpacks out of the lockers, Mike to check them in - while I spent 5 mins repacking our daypacks, with the stuff in the locker. So Mike rushed off to make check in. Upon his arrival, he was asked where his wife was! He said I was coming, deciding not to correct them on their mistake in case they wouldn't let him check my stuff in, the aiport staff then enquired as to whether his 'wife' was pregnant - therefore the delay! Fortunately Mike stated that this was not the case! Needless to say I was in stitches when he relayed the story to me!

We spent 3 nights in Penang with some friends of Mike's - wouldn't recommend it as a place to visit. A bit like the Costa Bravo. but it did have great shopping. DVD's were 4 ringit a piece (6.6 RM to the pound) so many were purchased.

We caught the bus from Penang to Tanah Rata in the Cameroon Highlands yesterday. I had an egg pancake at the bus terminal prior to leaving for breakfast - Mike just had a coffee (turned out to be a good decision). The bus trip was 6 hours, with the last 2 hours being a very windy road. Nausea overcame both of us, and we were really glad to get off the bus at the end. We had a bit of a walk around town, but I felt worse with each hour. Mike attempted to ply me with food, I had a banana milkshake and a magnum (only western food we could find!), but I felt no better.

In the end I said I needed to return to the hostel and lye down, feeling a bit silly as the bus journey wasn't that bad to incapacitate me. Fortunately or unfortunately, a little after that I threw up multiple times. I then spent the rest of the day in bed, with Mike getting me water, tablets and having to buy a sink plunger (not further details required!). I have not felt so ill for a long long time. Fortunately I am feeling a bit better today and even managed some toast and a cup of tea!

Moral to the story - no eggs at bus stations!

Until next time.....

Ngaira

Cape Town, South Africa

Hi,

I landed in Cape Town on thursday night after a shocker day of travelling. I have decided that if I do not expend enough energy for a day, I start to feel like a caged animal!

Zealese picked me up from the airport, and I am staying with her and Matt (husband) and Kheya (4 month old). They have a beautiful flat in Green POint, right near the waterfront.

Spent friday checking out the waterfront area, there was a power failure at about 2pm, so our shopping was haltered significantly, so will need to repeat the exercise again this coming week. On friday night we drove down to Paternoster, which is 90 mins away on the coast. Zea's parents live there (they are on holiday in Zimbabwe) so ew had a lovely house on the beach to stay in.

Zea and I got the bikes out and went riding around the village, and even spotted whales along the coast. There were several dead seals on the beach too - phew, do they smell.

I tried voetkoek - traditional south african meal for lunch, and Matt cooked an amazing braai for dinner. We came back to Cape Town this evening in time for church at 7pm.

Lots more to do in Cape Town before I leave on thursday morning. Still have not seen the top of Table Mountain, due to the never relenting low clouds! Am praying for the situation to be reversed.

Cape Town is way more relaxed than Jo'berg. I even went out by myself this afternoon to look at some markets! Very brave!

Best run.

Ngaira xx

Windhoek, Namibia

Hi all,

I have not written for a week, we have been flying aaround the country!

We picked up our hire car and drive for many hours south to Keetmanshoop. We stayed in an american western theme hotel with zebra print towels and leopard print duvet! Very wierd experience. The next day we drove onto the Fish River Canyon, then onto Ludewitz for the night. We ended up driving into town through sunset, the road was tarred, through sand dunes, so the sand was blowing across the road, making it difficult to see where I was driving. The enxt morning we went to this town that used to be a mining town, but when the mines closed, the town was just left. Literally to the sand, there were buildings that you couln't walk fully into, because the sand was piled up against the front door. They call it a ghost town, and we were sure glad we waited to see it in the morning, it would have been too freaky on sunset. When we went to the entrance we had to pay an admission, we lowered the window of the car, a guy came out of a no office wearing goggles (the sand was blowing a gale!), an amusing sight.

From there we headed west to the coast and went to Walvis Bay and then stayed in Swakopmund the night. We stayed in this place called the alternate space, a B & B run buy a really friendly namibian family. The room was according to Mike - like a mushroom tunnel! The slightly disconcerting thing about the room, was that it had lots of nude photos and paintings. You may ask why this was disconcerting...well the sheer number was one thing, but upon closer inspection we realised the phots were of our hostess!

We stayed here two nights, as Mike insisted that we get up at 5am to head towards Soussvlei, and I needed a sleep in. So we pottered around town, Mike swam in the Atlantic (too cold for me!) and had lots of game to eat. We found a fab restaurant and had Lobster and Oysters for dinner! Yum!! We at this stage realised that we were not quite sticking to budget or our previous backpacker lifestlye.. but oh well!

We drove on then to Soussvlei - the dunes were amazing, and we went the opposite direction from all teh tourists and climbed our own dunes, you will have to see the photos! AMAZING!

We then drove to a little town, and stayed in a farmhouse the night. We had dinner with the owner and his extended family, and learnt allot about farming in the local area.

We were up early again (5am - Mike is a hard task master) and drove to Etosha National Park. Here we stayed for one night, and spotted elephants, giraffes, waterhogs, deer (I am soo over deer) and lots of zebra. Again another amazing experience.

We then headed back to Windhoek last night.

We fly to Cape Town this afternoon.

Looking forward to seeing Matt and Zea!

Talk Soon

Ngaira
xx

Swakopmund, Namibia

Left Johannesburg and flew to Windhoek. We hired a car - they call it a Toyota Tazz 2005 model. It is exactly the same as my first car 1993 Holden Nova - so I feel like I have gone back in time.

We have driven around and seen lots of game and spent yesterday in the sand dunes in Soussvlei.

We are heading to Etosha National Park tomorrow after a rest day here today.

Will email more from Cape Town next week.

Ngaira
xx

Johannesburg, South Africa

Arrived in Joburg last night on sunset, therefore by the time we had got our lugagge, picked up a hire car and mobile it was dark. Not quite the strat I was thinking of - apparently driving around Joburg at night is not particularly safe! But after several wrong turns we found our way to friends of Mike's. We had a lovely dinner, and then stayed the evening at the sons empty flat (currently in Dubai) - which was pure luxury. We had two beds, two bathrooms, hot water, a television and a sofa.

The panic alarm that we were shown how to use - well shall I say it freaked me out slightly! Mike has been telling me I am not safety conscious enough - however barbed wire and electric fences seemed to shock me into a sense of reality. Amusingly enough Mike is more comfortable with these precautions - they unfortunately do not allow be to remain naive - so I would prefer a white picket fence.

We both were up at 5am this morning - so we have had a good chance to have a look around and do a spot of shopping. One more night then off to Namibia.

Ciao for now!

Ngaira
xx