Home Time
elyobo — Fri, 07/08/2009 - 3:49pm
As most of you probably know by now, I'm home again, so if I haven't seen you yet I will do soon. I'm just going to post a few more small panoramas and quickly cover things for the last month and a half since I posted an update (where does the time go?). Remember you can click the "Preview" link below the panoramas to get a bigger version, or the "View Full Size" link to get a really big one!
After our all to short time in Jerusalem we jumped back to Jordan; getting out was, thankfully, much easier than getting in, but still took far more time than it should have done. Israelis aren't allowed out through the King Hussein Bridge border crossing (indeed, our friend Lee didn't even know it was there!) and the resources given to this Palestinian/Foreigner crossing are clearly far less than those at the northern crossing we entered through.
We had a little more time in Amman to enjoy our favourite activities - drinking coffee and karkade while smoking sheesha in the evenings, chowing down on delicious falafel and humus for lunch - before our return to Thailand. A pleasant flight (getting fed in the air seems like a luxury after so many flights on budget airlines!), followed by massive immigration queues, and we were back in the Land of Smiles.
Our time in Thailand was pretty lazy, just days filled with drinking iced coffee and eating delicious food. We did make it away for brief trips to Pataya, Hua Hin, Khao Yai National Park and Ubon Ratchatani as well, so we weren't completely limited to Bangkok. Khao Yai National Park, in particular, looks like a lot of fun and it would be great to get back there and do some more hiking - even in our brief time there we saw some sort of monitor lizard, heaps of monkeys, some deer, lots of elephants and a lot of birds. Next time, perhaps.
June has been stuck (and is still stuck) in Thailand trying to arrange the working holiday visa for Australia, as we're planning on moving to Melbourne for a few years some time next month. I, however, had booked flights to take me home to NZ via Bali, as I was expecting all the visa stuff to be sorted well before then - unfortunately the bureaucracy involved is mad and things never go as quickly as they should, so I headed off to Bali alone.
Arriving at 9.30pm due to delayed flights from Malaysia (just a transit stop en route from Bangkok) wasn't so fantastic; getting stuck in customs, due to broken computer systems, was worse. The aircon was completely failing to keep up with the massive queues of people piling up there, people were getting tired and angry (some had been there as much as three hours by the time we arrived) and when we eventually got through and found our way to Kuta almost every hotel was full. It took a good three hours before I found a place to stay, and it was hardly a luxury resort :-/
Such is life, however. I didn't waste time hanging around in Kuta, which appeared to be solely populated by drunk Australian youths, instead heading straight up to Ubud the next day. Surrounded by lush rice terraces and jungle, Ubud is a very popular tourist spot, with more hotels and "craft" shops than there are fleas on the local dogs. It's an attractive spot, in spite of that, and a great way to see it is to hire a motorbike for the day and head out to explore.
I hooked up with another traveller, Jens, and headed north from Ubud to see the Batura Volcano. The ride was great, although somewhat terrifying in places. We found a small, very steep, road which descended into the crater far off the main (safer) route. After sliding out several times on the descent, my hands were shaking wildly at the bottom, but we pressed on - at least partly because we weren't sure that our bikes could actually ascend the same road again. The scenery along the bottom route was great, with the volcano on one side, steep, jungle covered hills on the other and lava fields all around. Eventually we had to ride directly through the lavafield on some dodgy road that we desperately hoped would come out the other side, rather than dead ending. Luck was with us, and we celebrated by finding a fish restaurant down by the local lake and indulging.
The rest of the trip I spent either beside the sea or cruising around on the motorbikes and taking in the scenery. Uluwatu, in the south of Bali, was a particularly appealing spot - it made me wish that I'd taken up surfing years ago so that I could get out there and enjoy the waves! Check out the panorama above - unfortunately the waves don't meet up, of course, but it still looks pretty cool
And now, I have returned home to the freezing NZ winter. A week in Christchurch and Methven has been enough to catch up with almost all of my Christchurch based family - although I've still to visit Beth, Richard & Co. - but there are many friends still to see! I'm up in Auckland right now, seeing my little sis and a few other friends and will have a week of snowboarding (starting tomorrow) before hitting up Wellington for a few days.
Mount Somers and Neighbour (what is it called again?), Canterbury, New Zealand
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PS: As per usual, there are quite a few new photos added from various locations - the best way to see them all is to click on the photography link up above, which always shows the most recent photos added!