Down under looks pretty much on the up and up after the rest of our trip! We've battled through a strong dose of culture shock (we can drink the water?! the shower is hot?!) and have had an indulgently enjoyable couple of weeks in Australia & NZ! Highlights include:
*Marveling at the amenities of the Seoul airport on our layover- free showers and TV rooms!, a Smoothie King!, and even southerners (Cate met a girl from Spartanburg in the airport!)
*Being picked up in Sydney by Cate's parents' friend, Averil. Such a luxury and no haggling for taxi prices.
*Sydney was gorgeous! Coastal walks along Coogee and Bondi beaches watching surfers.
*The Opera House at night, the Taronga zoo with a view of the harbor, walking around markets.
* Walking past the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in the botanical gardens.
*Meeting up with my friend Mike, from Sydney, for a drink and then reuniting with Flynn, an Irish friend who hiked Machu Picchu with us and happened to be in Sydney also!
Onto New Zealand, where we jumped to Queenstown to meet up with my sister, Marissa, for a week!
*Seeing my sister after 9 months of not seeing her and 5 months of not seeing any family was pretty exciting!
*Also meeting up with my friend from high school, Stephen Downey and his wife, Rachel, who have moved to NZ! Pretty awesome to reconnect with people in crazy places.
*We took a cold, but beautiful trip to Milford Sound, skied through a cloud at Coronet Peak, Marissa and I bungee jumped 134m (amazing!), survived a pub crawl, danced the night away a few times at Winnie's, the bar where Marissa bartends, attended the 'Top Bloke' contest which is basically a 'Mr. Queenstown' contest complete with a talent portion and hilarious choreographed dances.
Now we've taken to the road with our rental car to make our way to Auckland where we fly home from on the 16th!
So far we've hiked the Franz Josef Glacier and stayed at some pretty pimped out backpackers hostels (complete with hot tubs!).
We'll try to post one more time before heading home!
xx k+c
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
For Kathleen, our number *one* and only supporter
Thanks for reading our blog and knowing how to comment on it!
We spent a week in the hippie Himalaya oasis of Vashist outside of Manali, hanging with Argentinians, hiking up waterfalls, yoga-ing, gawking at drum circles, taking baths in the hot springs, and just enjoying the view. Were very sad to leave.
After an overnight bus and an overnight train, we are back in Mumbai, where it's cooler as the monsoon has arrived (not nearly as scary as it sounds, more of a drizzle), awaiting an overnight plane to Sydney and the last leg of our trip. :(
We will be in Sydney Friday morning and are admittedly both glad to be getting back into first world territory - most excited about drinking water straight from the tap, reliably safe public transport, well and MARISSA!
Report soon from Down Under!
xx
We spent a week in the hippie Himalaya oasis of Vashist outside of Manali, hanging with Argentinians, hiking up waterfalls, yoga-ing, gawking at drum circles, taking baths in the hot springs, and just enjoying the view. Were very sad to leave.
After an overnight bus and an overnight train, we are back in Mumbai, where it's cooler as the monsoon has arrived (not nearly as scary as it sounds, more of a drizzle), awaiting an overnight plane to Sydney and the last leg of our trip. :(
We will be in Sydney Friday morning and are admittedly both glad to be getting back into first world territory - most excited about drinking water straight from the tap, reliably safe public transport, well and MARISSA!
Report soon from Down Under!
xx
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Apparently 46 Celsius is 115 Fahrenheit.
It was hot. Real hot.
But also unbelievably stunning, serene, magical.
Golden Triangle
We've been in India for about a week and half now and have already seen a good bit of the Golden Triangle!
We moved from steamy and humid Mumbai where we spent a day at Elephanta Island, had a fancy dinner near the Racecourse with one of Krista's dad's friends from business school, and starred as extras in a Bollywood film to Udaipur where we saw a beautiful sunset from the Monsoon Palace, watched a late night screening of James Bond's Octopussy (a majority of which was filmed in Udaipur), played dress up with saris and were convinced to have some Indian clothes tailor-made, to Jaipur where we took a day break from the bustle at an organic farm, read our books and paddled in the half-full pool and then had one day touring the Pink City with a rather incompetent, but well-meaning tour guide. Highlights included Mantar Jantar, one of the largest and most well-preserved astrological parks in India, and seeing Dr. Vinod Shastri for a palm reading and astrological charting (after the guru that our guide took us to tried to sell Krista a pendant to unblock her heart shakra(?!) and made me cry!) Looks like according to the stars both Krista and I are going to have long, happy lives filled with travel - let's hope he's right!
Yesterday, we spent the day in Agra. We were both feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the heat and victimized by pushy and somewhat mafioso drivers/tour guides/shop owners, but a late afternoon and sunset at the Taj Mahal was a cure-all. The Taj really is the jewel of India - more beautiful and grandiose in real life than any photo or postcard can portray and a calming aura with the pristine white against a stark bright blue sky pervades which is refreshing after the mishmash of colors and sensations of the Indian streets.
We got into crazy Delhi late last night and are staying in the Tibetan refugee area of town having our own little refuge. It turns out that, at least in India, Krista and I are country girls! Doing some maintenance today- emails, postcard writing, uploading photos - and are excited to head north to the hill stations of Shimla and then Manali tomorrow morning where the temperatures should be less than 46 degrees Celsius (we're scared to look up what this means in Fahrenheit, I think over 100!) and perhaps do some hiking and, if I can convince Krista, some yoga.
Namaste!
We moved from steamy and humid Mumbai where we spent a day at Elephanta Island, had a fancy dinner near the Racecourse with one of Krista's dad's friends from business school, and starred as extras in a Bollywood film to Udaipur where we saw a beautiful sunset from the Monsoon Palace, watched a late night screening of James Bond's Octopussy (a majority of which was filmed in Udaipur), played dress up with saris and were convinced to have some Indian clothes tailor-made, to Jaipur where we took a day break from the bustle at an organic farm, read our books and paddled in the half-full pool and then had one day touring the Pink City with a rather incompetent, but well-meaning tour guide. Highlights included Mantar Jantar, one of the largest and most well-preserved astrological parks in India, and seeing Dr. Vinod Shastri for a palm reading and astrological charting (after the guru that our guide took us to tried to sell Krista a pendant to unblock her heart shakra(?!) and made me cry!) Looks like according to the stars both Krista and I are going to have long, happy lives filled with travel - let's hope he's right!
Yesterday, we spent the day in Agra. We were both feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the heat and victimized by pushy and somewhat mafioso drivers/tour guides/shop owners, but a late afternoon and sunset at the Taj Mahal was a cure-all. The Taj really is the jewel of India - more beautiful and grandiose in real life than any photo or postcard can portray and a calming aura with the pristine white against a stark bright blue sky pervades which is refreshing after the mishmash of colors and sensations of the Indian streets.
We got into crazy Delhi late last night and are staying in the Tibetan refugee area of town having our own little refuge. It turns out that, at least in India, Krista and I are country girls! Doing some maintenance today- emails, postcard writing, uploading photos - and are excited to head north to the hill stations of Shimla and then Manali tomorrow morning where the temperatures should be less than 46 degrees Celsius (we're scared to look up what this means in Fahrenheit, I think over 100!) and perhaps do some hiking and, if I can convince Krista, some yoga.
Namaste!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Charmed Indeed.
Having sundowners at Shaba National Park, Kenya.Charmed
Think my dad termed it "charmed", but K ingeniously called Delta and we got put on the Nairobi direct to Mumbai flight, leaving 24 hours after we were supposed to and arriving in Mumbai 3 hrs after we were originally scheduled to. Effectively we saved 21 hours of travel time and ourselves the hassle of going back to Europe to fly to India. We're pretty happy little bunnies about that!
Arrived in Mumbai at about 3 o'clock in the morning and it felt like we were arriving on a tropical island - hot, humid, and lots of buzz, even at that time.
Made our way to the hotel in Colaba (I told Krista it felt like the taxi driver was driving in a figure 8), showered, passed out, woke up, and we just had our first authentic Indian meal. Pretty yummy, wish us luck with the digestion process.
More from Mumbai when we get out of this internet cafe and look around.
xx
Arrived in Mumbai at about 3 o'clock in the morning and it felt like we were arriving on a tropical island - hot, humid, and lots of buzz, even at that time.
Made our way to the hotel in Colaba (I told Krista it felt like the taxi driver was driving in a figure 8), showered, passed out, woke up, and we just had our first authentic Indian meal. Pretty yummy, wish us luck with the digestion process.
More from Mumbai when we get out of this internet cafe and look around.
xx
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Mumbai express
Krista now has important things to do at internet cafes like find housing and scholarships for next year, so you guys are stuck with me, really just trying to look as busy as she is!
We fly out of Nairobi tonight via Paris (and now it looks like Amsterdam thanks to last minute changeroo from Delta) to Mumbai. We'll be in Mumbai for three days and headed north toward the Himalaya's pretty immediately as India in June is supposed to be in the high 90's!!!!!
We both struggled to say goodbye to our projects. I cried and Krista almost cried which is pretty indicative for both of us! Looks like K is planning on coming back with a "blitz" team next summer, so she's pretty pumped and passed out stamped envelopes to her kids so they can keep in touch and remind her how inspired she was once upon a time, while studying away in snowy Vermont.
On Saturday morning we headed north to Isiolo on a series of matatu's and then hitching on a 1940's Land Rover which was in pretty bad disrepair, following the vague, but trustworthy advice of Lali to go and see her mom who was temporarily managing a game reserve in Shaba National Park.
We met up with Lali's mom, Sue, who is very obviously Lali's mom by looks and charm, and had two nights at a game lodge more beautiful than anything we could have imagined leaving Nairobi on Saturday morning. Joy's Camp http://www.joyscamp.com/ was such a treat. We had the most spectacular room overlooking a watering hole (we gave each other high fives upon entering!), had three successful game drives, ate a series of delicious three course meals and closed it off with a spectacular sundowner session on the last evening! We then got a ride back to Nairobi with the Austrian ambassador to Kenya and his wife (other guests at the lodge) stopping at a gorgeous little restaurant called Tree Trout, a tree house over a trout farm! We both felt pretty glamorous for a moment- so funny to be dropped back off in Lenana slum yesterday- but we definitely had the perfect Africa send off.
We're somewhat well-rested and ready for our next adventure. Krista has kicked the malaria, a blood test this morning confirmed it. I'm battling a little tonsilitis, but that's easy so hakuna matata (which is swahili for no worries!).
Love to everyone and asante sana to our hosts in Kenya!
xxxx
We fly out of Nairobi tonight via Paris (and now it looks like Amsterdam thanks to last minute changeroo from Delta) to Mumbai. We'll be in Mumbai for three days and headed north toward the Himalaya's pretty immediately as India in June is supposed to be in the high 90's!!!!!
We both struggled to say goodbye to our projects. I cried and Krista almost cried which is pretty indicative for both of us! Looks like K is planning on coming back with a "blitz" team next summer, so she's pretty pumped and passed out stamped envelopes to her kids so they can keep in touch and remind her how inspired she was once upon a time, while studying away in snowy Vermont.
On Saturday morning we headed north to Isiolo on a series of matatu's and then hitching on a 1940's Land Rover which was in pretty bad disrepair, following the vague, but trustworthy advice of Lali to go and see her mom who was temporarily managing a game reserve in Shaba National Park.
We met up with Lali's mom, Sue, who is very obviously Lali's mom by looks and charm, and had two nights at a game lodge more beautiful than anything we could have imagined leaving Nairobi on Saturday morning. Joy's Camp http://www.joyscamp.com/ was such a treat. We had the most spectacular room overlooking a watering hole (we gave each other high fives upon entering!), had three successful game drives, ate a series of delicious three course meals and closed it off with a spectacular sundowner session on the last evening! We then got a ride back to Nairobi with the Austrian ambassador to Kenya and his wife (other guests at the lodge) stopping at a gorgeous little restaurant called Tree Trout, a tree house over a trout farm! We both felt pretty glamorous for a moment- so funny to be dropped back off in Lenana slum yesterday- but we definitely had the perfect Africa send off.
We're somewhat well-rested and ready for our next adventure. Krista has kicked the malaria, a blood test this morning confirmed it. I'm battling a little tonsilitis, but that's easy so hakuna matata (which is swahili for no worries!).
Love to everyone and asante sana to our hosts in Kenya!
xxxx
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