somewhere over the rainbow

So today I spent quite a few hours uploading and tagging photos from the last six months.  However few people actually read this blog, I still thought I might share some of my recommendations for tours and places to stay based on where I have been over the course of this trip (although two tours that I had planned on doing were cancelled, as there weren't enough people for it to run).  Keep in mind that I am a backpacker who travels on her own on a very tight budget!

Group Tours:

• Busabout Greek Island Hopper
• Geckos Adventures Jordan & Israel
• GAP Adventures Cuba Colonial
• Top Deck Russian Revelations
• First Festival Travel Running Of The Bulls campsite package
• Haggis Adventures Wales Bank Holiday Long Weekend

Previous Group Tours:

• Contiki 46 Day Camping Tour around Europe
• Contiki Oktoberfest 5 Days
• Haggis Adventures Isle Of Skye
• Paddywagon Tours 6 Day All-Ireland Tour
• Busabout Iberian Adventure (but this didn't include Lagos when I did this tour in 2007)
• Gobus Pyramids And Beaches
• Tucan Travel Moroccan Highlights

Day Tours:

• New Europe Tours - these run in alot of cities in Europe, the guides are fantastic, and they're FREE!  You choose how much to tip them at the end.  Most of the time they are university students who are studying something relevant to that particular city.  I have done these tours in Berlin and Paris and can't rate them highly enough.
• Anderson Tours - this is a British based company who specialises in day trips and short breaks in Europe.  I did tours with this company to Bath/Stonehenge, Oxford/Windsor, and York.  Really great company and I found the prices pretty reasonable.  they also have a whole range of pickup spots across London.
• Tracks Travel - another British company who operates day trips and short breaks.  Used this company to do a day trip to Liverpool.  It was a bit expensive and could have done it myself for half the cost but was down to my last few days in London and didn't want to have to research everything like the trains, tickets for the Beatles Magical mystery Tour and tickets for the Beatles Experience (musuem). 
  

Places To Stay:

• Hotel Sorga - Kuta Beach, Bali, Indonesia.  My godsend when I arrived in Indonesia with no reservations, not realising every second Australian was also in Bali at the time and everywhere was either full or super expensive.  Wonderful staff, fantastic facilities, really close to Kuta Beach, great location in Poppies Gang.
  
• Paradise Beach Hotel - Negombo, Sri Lanka.  The management and staff of this hotel were so great to me - I had arrived after three days of transit between Vancouver, Taipei, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and was a wreck.  They let me check in early and have breakfast, organised a driver to take me everywhere I wanted to go in Sri Lanka for a very reasonable price and couldn't have been greater to me.  The hotel was really pretty and I had an amazing view over the beach.  When the maids made up my bed they folded it so nicely and covered it in flower petals - it was just so nice to be treated like that.  Best of all, on my backpacker budget and considering I was down to my last week abroad, the price for the room was great - I couldn't even pay for a hostel room in Europe for the same price as I paid per night here. 
  
• The Walrus Hostel, London - my home away from home.  Dave and Tony are awesome guys and will look after you.  The rooms are nice sized, the beds are cozy, bathrooms are clean, free breakfast and wifi and the location is fantastic.  Basically it's right behind Waterloo Station and two small blocks away from Lambeth North Tube and the bus connections are fantastic as well.  You can also just pop down to the Thames and jump on the Eye in minutes, or even walk over to central London in just a few minutes.  There's markets on most morning down one of the side streets where you can pick up cheap food too!  Love it!
• Square Culaincourt, Montmartre, Paris - one of the prettiest hostels I've ever stayed in!  The walls of the room had gorgeous purple and pink flocked wallpaper and the bathrooms were new.  Amazing location in the heart of Montmartre.  Could walk uphill to Sacre Couer or downhill to the Moulin Rouge, could see Le tour Eiffel from the court outside, great access to the Paris Metro.  AMAZING free breakfast and a fantastic little patisserie across the square.  There is a lockout of the hostel for a few hours in the afternoon for cleaning purposes but who cares - you're in PARIS.  What the hell would anyone want to be in their room for???
• YES! Hostel Lisbon - I'm not a huge fan of Lisbon, but this hostel was great.  Brand new, still work being done on some of the rooms when I stayed there.  Really clean rooms, great facilities, location smack-bang in the middle of Lisbon.
• Anne Hostel, Tokyo - nice and new and clean and in a great location is Asakusabashi.  Was a bit of a hassle to get to on the train from the airport in Tokyo but that may has just been me.  Once yuo have a grasp of the Tokyo public transport system, you realise you're in a pretty great area.  Also, in a city as expensive as Tokyo, free breakfast and computers with internet is unreal.
• Wombats Hostel Berlin - stayed here on the final night of my Top Deck tour and just decided it would be easier to stay atthe same place for the following five days.  Was a little bit more expensive than other Berlin hostels but didn't mind.  Really nice, clean, airy rooms and bathrooms.  This place is very clean.  Free wifi and a really good kitche and outdoor area for preparing your owns meals.  You can walk to the Brandenberg Gate in about twenty minutes ifyou powerwalk, but the S-Bahn station is really close by.  Also has a really good bar on the top level.
• Mami Camilla, Sorrento - this is where I did my cooking cours eand also stayed for the week.  They were kind enough to upgrade me from the dorm room to a private room as they had overbooked.  The cooking course was so much fun even if Chef and Mami didn't speak much English (that was probably half the fun actually) and the food was amazing.  The cooking I did was in bulk so basically I cooked everyone staying at the hotels dinner and dessert.  I have never, ever tasted such good food in my life.
• Hostelling International Downtown Vancouver - great location, great heating, great healthy breakast, great free activities, easy public transport connection to the airport.
• Reykjavik Backpackers - brand new place, had been open for just a week when I got there in June.  Although Reykjavik isn't very big (you can walk to the domestic airport, that's how small it is!) the location is good, although if you don't have earplugs the downstairs bars along the street may keep you awake.  The Flybus from the airport stops right outside.  The bathrooms do smell as bit as the hot water is all warmed by the geothermal activity but that is actually very economical and environmentally good.  This place also had good heating!
• Yoho Youth Hostel, Salzburg - a really great hostel in a good location in Salzburg.  You can walk to it from the main bus and train stations (so long as it isn't raining) and the airport bus also stops at the train/bus station so it's easy to get there.  The hostel is quite big but has alot of brochures for tours and sightseeing.  There is also a bar and you get a free welcome drink when you check in.
• Hotel Plaza, Havana - this was the first time I'd ever stayed somewhere considered to be a "landmark" hotel and was the hotel included on my Cuban tour as the place we'd meet/our first nights accommodations/our last nights accommodation.  Really old grand, kinda shabby place in Old Havana, with beautiful old cars out the front and doormen and busboys in really old grand costumes.  The bar also served amazing vanilla milkshakes.

So there you have it!  I hope that anyone who is reading and is thinking of going to any ofthese places has a look at my recommendations.  (Also, now that I'm a travel consultant, I can organise a trip for you, too!).

I promise I will start putting up all my photos soon - well, not ALL of them, obviously, just the best ones!  Hopefully I will have them up by the end of the week - I start training for my job (as a Travel Consultant for Flight Centre - awesome travel perks with the job, which is so perfect, plus I am working really close to home!) next Monday and won't have much spare time after that!  I am really looking forward to starting work, not only because I need money but I haven't worked since May!  Also looking forward to making some travel plans for my holidays next year.  My friend Rosie and I are thinking of doing a P&O cruise through the South Pacific next year for her 21st, we travelled around Europe together a few years ago and met up in Singapore this year.  Sarah is badgering me to go to Turkey with her for Anzac Day which is still six months away.  I have been to Turkey and Gallipoli before and have always wanted to go there for an Anzac Day service, but feel hesitant to start putting in for holidays too soon at work.  Also if I went back to Turkey I'd like to go to Syria, as once I'm on my new passport I can pretend I never went to Israel this year and the Syrians will never know!  Was also hoping to go away for a few long weekends over the next year - considering it takes almost two hours just to get to Brisbane on public transport, I have no hesitation in spending three or so hours on a plane to go to Samoa or Tonga or back to Fiji or New Zealand just for a few days.  Would also be nice to get up to Airlie Beach/The Whitsundays and down to Melbourne over the next year.

So watch this space for photos and further travel updates! 

I'm back in Bris Vegas!

Which everyone now knows about!  So much for my big surprise homecoming!

A quick sum up of my last week on the road.  I mentioned Macau, which was boring.  Hong Kong was okay, but not in any hurry to go back.  Did the tram up to the peak, took photos of the crazy skyscrapers (and pollution), saw the Michael Jackson documentary at the cinema and walked up and down Nathan Road quite a bit.  On Thursday I flew back to Singapore for the last time, where the people at the bookshop in Terminal 2 know me and we said our goodbyes.  Then onto Kuala Lumpur Thursday evening, where I had prebooked a hotel room near the airport for the night.  Friday evening I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Bandar Seri Bagawan and arrived at about 8pm, and at 1.30 this morning departed for my flight back to Brisbane, and here I am.  Was really concerned with the lack of room left in my passport but just made it back to Australia with no room left in my passport - every single page is covered in stamps and visas!  It took me almost sixty countries to fill it over the last four years.

My poor backpack lasted the distance over these last six months with only a small tear in the front "day" pack (in a section I don't use anyway) and a strap has been busted - but thankfully it's a strap I don't need and doesn't affect the harness system.  The harness is still operating the same way it did the day I bought it, and none of the external parts ofthe backpack have broken like my last few.  My backpack is really dirty, and I plan on hanging it on the clothesline and scrubbing it down with laundry detergent tomorrow, but it has definately gone the distance over other brands, so I would certainly advise people buy Kathmandu gear in the future.  I also have Kathmandu storage bags for organising things within my back, the detatchable Gluon packs and multi-sectioned cosmetics bags, and they have all lasted my entire trip.

I have many, many, many photos to upload and share, no doubt I will get started in the next few days!  Time to start daydreaming about the next trip...hopefully an actual "holiday" on a P&O cruise ship around the Pacific, maybe sometime around my birthday next year would be great! 

Here's a tip: Macau sucks.  I had to clear immigration in and out of Hong Kong (and back in again) - normally I would be delighted with another stamp but I am now down to a page and a half left in my passport.  Anyway, Macau is meant to be the Las Vegas of the East - lots of casinos.  So that didn't interest me much.

 

However speaking of Las Vegas, I was shocked to hear about my cousin Lindsay running away to get married in Vegas this week!  Congratulations Lindsay and Jennifer, see you guys soon!

Just a quick note to say that I won't bother calling home this week.  The bank ate my money so I am petty poor and am not wasting time/money trying to figure out Hong Kong payphones.  You will all see me soon enough.

Have had such a great few days here, and wish I had more time (but that is always the case!).  I arrived in time to have breakfast here at the hotel a few days ago, very jet-lagged but couldn't sleep.  Arranged some tours for myself and did some grocery shopping.  Thursday my driver drove me to the city of Kandy, stopping along the way at Pinnawale Elephat Orphanage so I could frolick with the elephants roaming free in the mountains, and also at a tea plantation and factory, and also at an Ayurvedic practitioners farm where I learn about all sorts of natural therapies (Mel, you will be so impressed - you should totally go to Sri Lanka!) and got some massages.  Kandy itself was beautiful, up in the mountains in the Hill Country of Sri Lanka, a picturesque little city with a huge lake in the centre and British Colonial-style buidlings and best of all, a nice big Buddhist temple for me to run around in barefoot with offerings of purple lotus flowers, pink bouganvilleas, frangipanis and jasmine.  Really loved Kandy, and I recommend that everyone who goes to Sri Lanka spend some time there.

 

Yesterday my driver drove me down to the old city of Galle, a Portugese-then-Dutch fort, with a big lighthouse.  Along the way we drove through alot of the area that was badly affected by the tsunami.  There's a huge Buddhist statue memorial and lots of cemetaries, and also alot of building that have never been repaired or rebuilt.  Also stopped at Kosgoda Turtle Orphanage where a young Aussie guy presumbaly volunteering on his gap year was working there and showed me around.  They are currently looking after lots of turtles that they save from being eaten (turtle eggs are a delicacy here) and also a turtle that had his eye busted out in the tsunami and is now blind, poor little guy.

 

Also went to Unawatuna Beach which is about ten minutes down the road from Galle.  It is rated as one of the best beaches in the world and I have to agree.  I was going to have lunch at the resort but they were filming for a TV show there so couldn't.  On the way back my driver drove me through Colombo and pointed out the major sights, but I am not so interested i Colombo as it is just another big, ugly city.  I have been staying at Negombo, which is a beachside area just ten minutes away from the airport, and it has been easy to get to all the places I wanted to see from here. 

 

Here at the hotel they are currently setting up for a wedding in the garden by the pool, with the beach in the backdrop.  The weather here hasbeen just beautiful, except for Thursday night when it was stormy, so I just sat on my balcony and watched the storm over the ocean.  I am hoping the wedding is a nice big Hindu wedding and that everyone is wearing brightly coloured saris so I can take some sneaky photos from besides the pool.

 

Very early tomorrow morning I am flying back to Singapore (my first flight with Singapore Airlines, reportedly the nicest in the world to fly with!) and then have five or so hours to waste before I fly onto Hong Kong.  I am contemplating going to Hong Kong Disney sometime this week!

Hooray!   This is the last time I will have to lie on a cold airport floor and wait for an early morning flight!  The rest of my trips' flights all line up quite nicely and accommodation is all sorted.  Currently in Singapore, flying onto Kuala Lumpur and have six hours to kill before I fly out to Sri Lanka where naturally it is raining.  Flight from Vacnouver to Taipei to Singapore wasn't excruciatingly bad as I manaed to sleep for the first few hours.  Then the screaming baby started.  And didn't stop until the wheels of the plane hit the runway in Taipei.  I cannot comprehend why people take babies on long haul flights except as a form of child abuse or something. 

 

Also very sad to hear about the Israelis bombing those poor Palestinians houses in Jerusalem, one of my favourite cities in the world.  God Israelis are bullies. 

 

Sent home a box of stuff today from Singapore, thigs that I have been carrying around since Japan, I may arrive home before the box does!

 

I am using the elephant theme on my blog currently as there is a well-known elephant orphanage at Pinnewala (I'm sure thats not spelt correctly) on the way out to Kandy (tea plantation country) in Sri Lanka that I am going to try and visit over the next few days!

Over the next two days I will fly from Vancouver to Taipei to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to Colombo, possibly with no sleep.  My flight doesn't leave for another nine hours and my eyes are already stinging and I want to nap.  Please, please, please, whatever forces out there exist, let me sleep on the flight to Taipei at least!

Went to see Where The Wild Things Are at the cinema today.  I don't go to cinemas very often and when I do its usually to see films that I hear have been beautifully created with great soundtracks, rather than to see a blockbuster.  I loved the film, even though I wanted to smack the little boy playing Max.  I hope that is not representative of the name.  I will have to email Rebecca to see if Maxy has a copy of the book, even though the film was far too scary for kids and Maxy is far too young to read.  Or even better, a Max costume, as seen here.  How cute is that!

Also, today I was a crowd extra for a very big Hollywood blockbuster film being filmed here in Vancouver!  The A-Team film is being remade and I got to stand on the sidewalk while a car scene was being filmed.  VERY cool!

Tomorrow is my last day in Canada, I fly out at half past one on Monday morning, then begins two fun days of flying!  I hate flying.  When I get home I am going to sit down and work out exactly how many hours I have spent on planes this year (including my trip to Hawaii in February).  Someone should probably pay for a carbon offset voucher for me for Christmas.

I went to Whistler yesterday!  It was beautiful.  Everyone there was so friendly and told me I should come live and work there for a season.  Very, very tempting.  I could become a MASTER SNOWBOARDER.  I could have THIGHS OF STEEL.  We'll see what sort of shitkicker job I get at home and see how long I last.  If not, there's always teaching English in Korea, which makes very good money and you even get flights and accommodation sorted for you.  Thanks, Air Asia sales!  Saved me a fortune!  Also for an extra $100 and a compromise on the accommodation in Sri Lanka, I get to stay an extra day, yay!  I so hope to get into travel consultancy at home.  I would be awesome at it and since I have travelled to almost sixty countries, I know what I am talking about. 

Also Mum please be on the lookout for a parcel from Dorothy Perkins for me, just a few things I ordered online just now.  Will send home another parcel of stuff over the next few days once I am back in Asia (no point paying double when I am twice as far away from Australia, but it is more than likely that I will be home before my stuff gets there).

Spent this afternoon booking the final round of flights, accommodation, etc.  Called Royal Brunei to change my flight home.  Here is a hint, I will be home sometime in November but that is all I am saying.  Could be the first, could be the thirtieth.  I am not going to India, as the visa thing is a hassle, and I am having huge health problems, no thanks to a small procedure I had done my last week in London.  Boooo.

Anyway, five minutes left on the net, so here's a quick wrap-up:  I like Canada lots, very "alternative" culture here in Vancouver, also foun dout why one of my credit cards hasn't been working in months - someone in Cuba copied my details when I hande dmy credit card over for a cash advance and tried to use it!  Dodgy!  All good now.