Day 141 – 1st July: Markets and pools So today was the first time for a while that we had to go and find somewhere for breakfast. Breakfast at our hotel was expensive. However, this proved very difficult as has most of Asia. We ended up in Starbucks with a disappointing croissant, blueberry muffin and peanut butter panini. Although we had both develop a taste for iced lemon tea whilst travelling which pleases Amy very much. After we finished we walked around the town of Ubud. We stumbled across a market (which was on our list of things to do anyway) and had a look round. It was a maze of stalls, food and ukuleles. One thing we have noticed about people from Bali is that they aren’t very pushy, if you say no thank you they say your welcome and leave it at that. Jodi managed to pick up a jumpsuit as she has been extremely good at not filling her bag with additional clothes (as much as we do need them). She also has got rather good at bartering. She managed to get 50,000 idp off the suit. We wiggled our way back towards the hotel for a well-deserved swim in the infinity pool, one of the main reasons we booked Pertiwi Bisma 2. Very cold pool which remains cold but I think that’s because it’s so deep. After we had caught the last bit of the evening rays, we headed upstairs to change and find somewhere to eat for dinner. Day 142 – 2nd July: Monkey Forest Today was the day we have been waiting for. We are going to the monkey forest which is conveniently quite close to the end of our road. It is a sacred sanctuary so the monkeys are naturally cared for as they are considered a sacred animal in Indonesia. Before we even reached the entrance to the forest, there were monkeys hiding in the bamboo tree’s searching for food. We reached the entrance, paid the fee and wandered on in. There were monkeys everywhere, all waiting to be fed banana’s which you could purchase. We were going to purchase some but we saw some monkeys fighting next to a couple and decided against it. We walked around observing all the monkeys keeping an eye out for any babies. We took lots of pictures, sat for a little while letting them come close. Oh, we also had a water bottle but the monkeys were clever enough to work out to pierce a hole in the bottom to get what was on the inside so we had to ditch that. They were very inquisitive and if people had bags which resembled those of the keepers, they would try to get inside them as they know there is most likely food in there. There were some people who take it too far and tease the monkeys causing them to fight so we try to stay away from these guys as long as possible. It was lovely to be able to see them in their (almost) natural habitat, eating, grooming and learning. We were in here for nearly two hours! We stopped off to have a much-needed drink and something to eat before heading back towards the palace which is near our hotel. It isn’t as impressive as it sounds unfortunately. Anyway, after we did that we headed back to get changed and headed out for something to eat! Day 143 – 3rd July: A surprise for us all Now Jodi as we know has planned this whole trip, researching and discovering things along the way. And today was one of those things she randomly found on Instagram and decide we needed to book it. We contacted the lady a couple of days ago and now we were on our way to Zen Hideaway. It was a little tricky to find s we helped our cab driver with our trusty maps.me (a maps app which works without Wi-Fi). we pulled up outside two sets of brown doors and a local lady guided us to the open one. A lady inside gave us a wavier form to fill out which stated that this isn’t obviously the safest thing in the world and to use at your own risk. I’m sure you can guess by now from the pictures it was about a massive swing which takes you out over the tree tops. There were a couple of couples in front of us so we watched them and decided that Amy would go first. It was a bit scary as there is
no harness or safety net to catch you if something was to happen, just a small rope to pull the swing back to you. Soon enough it was our turn. Amy got on the swing, took a deep breath and swung. It was so nerveracking to be that high up from the floor (15 – 20ft) and concentrating on putting your feet back down when you returned to the tiny platform. It was amazing though! We went again and again and again, there was no-one waiting in the queue behind us so we took loads of videos and photo’s, never wanting to stop. It was set in a beautiful place though and her apartments there are fully booked up until June 2018 and you can see why. We made our way back to the hotel for a swim and a sunbath before facetiming people telling them we had a coming home date. We rang mum later in the evening as she is currently 13 hours behind us! Day 144 – 4th July: We climbed a mountain! The day we have all been excited for – not for the early wakeup call mind you. The alarm was set for 1:30am and again at 1:45am. The bus picked us up at 2:00am on the dot. We picked up some more people and we were on our way for a 1 and a half drive to the bottom of Mount Batur. We all waited in the hotel after a cup of tea or coffee and we met our guide, Hadi. He gave us our torches and told us it would be around 2 hours before we reached the summit. Off we marched in our little group of 5, us, 2 aussies and a guy from Thailand. It was strange as it was pitch black and all we could see was a harem of torch lights slowly separating from each other. It started off being a little steep but this was good enough to handle. About half hour up, Hadi turned to us and said ‘it gets steep now for about 20 minutes’. Ok we thought not so bad, we gradually climbed up and up getting more and more out of breath. We stopped for a beak at the half way point where we were given an option. We could carry on to the summit or we could branch off onto a lower platform to see exactly the same thing it is just an easier climb. We had joined this tour to reach the summit and reach the summit we would. We massively underestimated the climb though. When we researched it, nowhere said you needed some sort of hiking experience (when we read further into it, it was in the small print!). This was a hike, a full on proper hike. We were climbing up rocks, stepping up edges where your knee was at your chin, hoisting each other up to help each other. And pausing regularly because all of us were struggling. We saw the beginning of the sunrise on the way up and it soon disappeared as we reached the clouds. The air was thick and wet with damp as we were sweating buckets, Hadi announced we were only 10 minutes from the top and we all practically cheered. We continued on our ascent. We started to see small groups of people, huddling together to keep warm. We had made it, we had reached the top of mount Batur! Hadi took us to a more secluded spot. It was very cloudy up there and the sun took a while to appear but when it did the view was breath taking. We had some breakfast up there, and relaxed before slowly making our decent. Much to our relief we were going down a different way. We felt the steam from the mountain which was rather pleasant as we were freezing. We continued to make our way down when we came to a slippy region (lots of loose rocks in large volumes). We went down single file, losing our footing, nearly falling on our bottoms and watching the locals run down with ease. We reached the flatter surfaces with much relief. It was still slightly steep. We made our way all the way back to the bottom, saw the mountain in the daylight, returned to the drop off point and were driven back to the hotel. Ours was the last drop off. Then plan for the rest of the day was to relax by the pool. However, we were rather dead, so napped and then swam. We did manage to return out for dinner but that was about it!
Day 145 – 5th July: Our private day tour Today we are going on a tour of the island or parts of the island, it’s too big to do in one day. Our driver, Gusti picked us up at 10:00am. He was a little old man with really bad teeth but very lovely. We jumped into the car and drove off to our first stop Tegenungan Falls. We walked down the 165 steps (dreading coming back up) to the bottom. We took some pictures before the crowds of people joined, we didn’t get in it was freezing. We made our way back up the steps, only stopping twice go us! We are still really achy and sore from the mountain climb yesterday. Back in the car and we headed to the Elephant cave or Goa Ganjah. Just a small temple which holds a sacred tree and a temple. We were soon on the way to another temple, Gunung Kawi. Gusti took us around this one and explained that they soon would be having ceremonies all around Bali, when the full moon happens. He also explained that the statues and carvings that we could see were all done by the people in this village. He has travelled America and Europe using this as he can carve too. They were all in the process of making decorations and cleaning so we soon moved on. We took an unexpected stop at the Alam Bali coffee plantation. Gusti needed a break and something to eat. Someone showed us around explaining the differences in coffee beans, the spices they grow, the process of Luwang coffee and we also got a free taster session with 4 different teas and 4 different coffee’s. This was a nice surprise. We jumped back into the car and headed to the Batur Natural hot springs. It’s a series of natural hot springs and they were lovely and very much needed. We got some complimentary deep-fried banana’s and we could have stayed here forever, but we had the rice terraces left to do. We changed, found Gusti and headed off to our last destination. The weather by this point wasn’t the greatest but it was interesting to look at and wander round the terraces. We were soon on the way back to the hotel, tired and sore. We grabbed food to take away tonight, packed and relaxed our sore muscles in a nice warm bath. Day 146 - 6th July: Travelling to Gili Trangwan Travel Time: bus – 2 hours, boat – 1 hr 45 mins Forever on the move and today we move to Gili Trangwan. The boat company picked us up from the hotel in their bright orange bus and we went to collect more people. We waited nearly an hour for them as we were early and then they were waiting at the wrong pick up point. We then collected the last two people and we were on our way to the port. This is what took the longest part of the journey. We got stuck in some traffic and the boat was leaving at 1:45pm. We pulled up outside the ticket office on the beach, this is when it all started. Our boat didn’t actually leave until 3ish –nearly 2 hours later than planned. Non-one had informed us of this. We all disembarked and embarked from the same pier which was heaving with people, petrol tanks, vendors and random locals asking if they wanted transfers. We waited on the pier for another half hour before stepping onto a rickety platform which by no means would have passed a health and safety test. The only good thing was people actually formed a queue to get on the boat. We found some seats and sat down, waited for everyone to board the boat with their luggage too and eventually we set off. Little did we know that we were in for a rough ride. We soon hit the waves and we were hitting them hard. The water was coming in through the locked doors and slapping the windows. One of the workers came around handing out sick-bags, thankfully no-one was sick. Much to our relief, we were soon pulling into Gili Trangwan where there is no pier and you get off in the sea. Jodi and her amazing research skills already knew this and had made us wear flip flops for this occasion. They unloaded the bags and we set off to find the hotel. It was just going to be our luck being very hungry and very thirsty that our hotel was the only one which did not have a sign post and was wrongly placed on the map we were using. We wandered around asking locals from around half an hour after one person had sent us the wrong way! Eventually after 3 wrong turns we located it. Green Banana was there, we checked in and went straight back out to get something to eat. Today was a long day! Day 147 - 7TH July: Searching for the sea swings We had breakfast served on our patio this morning, it makes sense as there would be nowhere else for us to sit. It was literally the breakfast of champions. Safe to say we will be saving money on not buying lunch. We then headed out scope out some decent looking bikes to hire for the day. Jodi spotted some cute cream bike
with wicker baskets on the front. Very cheap to hire them for the whole day. Our aim was to cycle the island and find the sea swings, the iconic travel picture. We set our and cycled our way to turtle point, stopping to take scenic pictures and walking our bikes through the sand. We continued cycling until we found the first swing, not one we had planned to see but we stopped anyway. Took some pictures and moved on. We carried on cycling around until we stopped at Window Bar (the swing with the love heart), had a drink and realised that it was high tide some most not if all the swings were going to be in the water. We were going to give them ago anyway. After our drinks, we moved onto the Pandawa Swing and the Wanderland’s swing. Pandawa went fine, however the Wanderland’s swing was so high up we both struggled to get on it. The sea was strong too which didn’t help. We swiftly moved on through the strong sea breeze and came across the very wonky Ashton’s swing. The Ombak Sunset ones were next, these are apparently the most famous ones to have pictures at sunset with. We carried on with our bikes and stopped at Gili Teak hotel where they had a double bench swing. We grabbed a cider each and relaxed with the crashing waves. Little did we know this was Charlotte’s hotel, Jodi spotted them and we caught up with them for a little while. The most impressive swing by far was the Exile Swing (the one with the flag). The hammock had a hole in so we decided against getting a two-person picture. Next to it was Malibu Paradise. We moved onto the other side of the island where we came across the Pink swing outside Pink Coco. We began our cycle back as we were sweaty and needed a shower. We went back to Ombak to watch the sunset and got a drink at the beach bar. We also figured out how we would get the swing picture we desired in a couple of days. We cycled back to our side of the island and handed the bikes back, went out for dinner and the peacefully went to sleep. Day 148 – 8th July: Sunset horse ride and a day by the beach Today was a chill day as we are aching from the bikes yesterday. We made our way to turtle point beach to lay in the sun to top up the tans. It was very very hot so we were here for a couple of hours, swam in the crystal-clear sea but decided against snorkelling because the waves were rather big. We took slow walk back to the hotel as we were going to do a sunset horse ride at 5ish. Amy jumped straight in the pool when we got back, was very refreshing and did a few lengths. We got changed and walked right through the middle of Gili Trangwan, was very dusty and we got dirty again rather quickly. We found our way to Stud Stables and discovered that there were another couple going to be riding with us, they were Australian. We all got on our horses and we were off. to be fair the sunset wasn’t the greatest, but the experience itself was still great. We got some good photos and GoPro footage from it. Jodi had a rather stubborn horse who didn’t like to be in the water and Amy had a horse who refused to come out of the water. Both were very stubborn! As we walked down the beach all the tourists were taking pictures which was a bit strange knowing they would have photos of us that we will never see. We returned to the stables and put the horses to bed. We walked back around the island (there are no street lights through the middle) and stopped at the first restaurant which had a good menu. We also grabbed doughnuts for pudding, we miss pudding, but they turned out to be crap! We topped up the tans which was a plus! Day 149 – 9th July: Where has the sun gone? It’s very grey today and windy. We were going to hire bikes to redo some of the swing pictures. But we decided to walk instead as we couldn’t find decent bikes, they were a bit old and rusty. We walked the opposite way around the island to the first day but sadly the swings were still in the sea even though we had left earlier. This did not deter us. We continued to walk around and realised that it was rather quiet and put this down to it being a Sunday. There were lots of families having picnics on the beaches but then there was no-one apart from sleeping locals. We stopped at a beach bar to have a drink and something to nibble before walking back to get our sunset swing pictures, which were very successful may I add. We watched the sun go down and then walked back towards our hotel with Jodi’s broken flip-flops. We stopped at the Irish
pub for something to eat before talking a slow walk back to the hotel. We packed up most of our stuff as we are on the move again tomorrow.
Day 150 – 10th July: Moving on to Nusa Lembongan Our last breakfast on the balcony, packing up our last few bits and then checking out. Our boat company had changed the time to our boat as they said the waves will be high at the time of our departure. We checked in and were ready to go by 11, however the boat was not. One thing we have learnt about Asia is their communication is at the bottom of their list and they work in organised chaos. We ended up boarding the boat around 11:45am. The passengers are what makes the boarding experience awful. You have to climb a ladder single file and anyone would think adults cannot form an orderly queue. It was all pushing and shoving, annoying and unnecessary. We found seats and thank goodness no-one wanted to next to us, it’s a bit claustrophobic with your bag on your lap. You can’t put it on the floor as the floor gets wet. Anyway, we set off and it was all nice and calm, little bit of rocking from side to side and then the big waves came. We have had some bad journeys on this trip but this has by far been the worst. The waves were slapping the side of the boat, the water was coming through the seal in the window. The slapping was hard and the water was flying over the boat. This we could handle. The waves then got bigger and we were making a dipping motion every time we hit a wave. It got a bit scary, so much so that we both woke up from a nap. We could see the sea from the boat suggesting to us we were dipping further sideways as we rode the waves. The noises clunk when you hit the waves, swaying from side to side as well as being conscious of the noise was tiring us out. Then that’s when it all went pete tong. People screamed as we hit a wave, made a loud crash and nearly capsized, it threw everyone sideways in their seats. We kid you not it was a situation where we genuinely thought we could die. Everyone sat up now and held on. The cabin crew wandered through the boat making sure everyone was ok. A 2-hour journey was longed out to 3 and a half hours due to the sea being as rough as it was. It was still rocking as we got closer and closer to Nusa Lembongan. We pulled up to the shore and were relieved to wade through the knee-deep water to land. The handed out the bags and we got into tuk tuk to take us to our hotel. This was a lovely squeeze into the tuk tuks. We were dropped off first to KiBata Boutique hotel, on top of a rather steep hill. We realised how steep this hill actually was when we returned from dinner. Knackered from our boat trauma we went to sleep. Day 151 – 11th July: Biking the island After breakfast, we decided that neither of us are brave enough to hire a scooter and ride one so we opted to cycle around the island which we read was totally possible in 2 hours. We found a lovely old couple who were renting decent bikes for cheap so we hopped on one. He asked us where we were staying and we told him, he laughed and asked us to return the bikes here as he would have picked them up if we were closer. We headed towards the east of the island, trying to not get knocked off by the trucks and mopeds which are everywhere. We finally reached a quite bit and headed towards the mangrove forest. Everyone is very friendly here, especially the children and would shout hello at us as we rode past. We didn’t go into the mangrove forest but rode around the outside of it aiming to arrive at the yellow bridge. The yellow bridge connects you to Ceningan Island, only foot passenger, bikes and scooter can cross here. We arrived, took some pictures and headed on over. The sea is ridiculously blue here as you can see from the pictures. We arrived at some scenery stops, took photos and headed to dream point. We left our bikes at the top of the hill and walked down. There are a lot of hills on these islands which is why people opt for scooters … go us being fit and environmentally friendly! We paused, looked and walked back up the hill to pick up our bikes making our way to the Blue Lagoon. This was breath-taking and beautiful. It was so blue and the waves were
crashing and in contrast with the sky it was just … wow! We took a moment to take it all in and obviously too some pictures. We left our bikes there and walked to Mahana point. This is where people cliff dive but sadly no-one was cliff diving today and just as well as the waves looked deadly. We picked up some fluids and rode back towards the beach. We found a cute little beach bar on the way back and decided to stop for a drink and a bite to eat. The sea was so low, Jodi went for a dip while Amy cooled off in the shade. We must add that we had decided to do this as it was very cloudy in the morning and the weather said it wasn’t going to change … it was wrong. We drank up and moved on, back over the bridge and in the direction of Dream Beach, a very popular beach with tourists as its one of the ‘safer’ ones to swim in. Devil’s tear was just around the corner so we left the bikes and wandered over, we were greeted with heaps of Asian tourists who had come here on trips. We found a space on the rock and watched. The waves crashed into the cave and when they were big enough, a spray of mist was force back out of the cave forming a rainbow. It was a pretty cool thing to watch. We also spotted so turtles in and amongst the waves coming up for air then diving back down to the bottom. The waves were so big when they crashed up against the rocks they caused people to ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ and run away from the mass of spray that was about to get them. We stayed here for a while before wandering back towards the bikes to pick them up and head over to Mushroom Bay. This beach is a lot calmer but harder to swim in because of the boats loading and unloading their goods. We then headed back towards the hotel, we jumped in the pool almost straight away. We then got changed, dropped the bikes back off and went for a well-deserved dinner. We are very proud of our accomplishment and slept very well. Day 152 – 12th July: Recovering You can tell we cycled along way yesterday … we ache today! We decided that after breakfast we are just going to relax today. opened the curtains and … its grey and drizzling. Ah well, we had things to do like catch up on the diary, add and sort the photos, washing and caring for ourselves. We did all of that and just after eating some lunch, the sun came out. We were straight by the pool, bagged the last sunbeds and laid there like a pair of lizards. We missed a great sunset yesterday which was a shamed however we tried to catch one tonight at the Panorama Restaurant but there wasn’t much to see. Hoping we will get some good ones in Seminyak. Day 153 – 13th July: Chilling We plotted the route we cycled the other day and we cycled around 15+ miles. The weather has been up and down today so we laid by the pool this morning. We got the best of the blue skies and sunshine, it went a bit grey and then very grey, so we went for a walk. We found a good restaurant that does amazing milkshake so we went there for a light lunch and milkshake. It was very yum. We looked in the very few shops they have here, all a bit surfer-ish for us. We came back to the hotel, showered got changed and went for dinner. Sometimes it is just nice to do nothing and we are okay with that. Day 154 – 14th July: Moving back to Seminyak Travel time: tuk tuk – 10 minutes, boat – 30 minutes, taxi 1 hour
Our last boat trip of the journey and it is defiantly a relief to know this. We weren’t being picked up until 12ish so we finished our last bits of packing, editing and enjoying the air-con before we made or way downstairs. We got chatting to the owner about the rest of our trip and he was shocked at how cold it gets in London. He was also shocked that we have to go to work when it’s that hot or cold. Our tuk tuk picked us up and there was no space in the back so we jumped in the front, it was cosy to say the least. We were dropped off at the beach, checked in at the office and waited for our vessel to arrive. It pulled up to shore about an hour later and we watched our bags be loaded on. There was a little bit of a rush when they said we could board but nowhere as bad as last time. We picked our seats and our luck was in again, no one sat next to us so we used the seat for our bags. The sea was choppy again, swaying from side to side but we were off at speed soon enough. The waves were big, we hit a few of them hard but the fact that it was going to be over soon kept our spirits alive. We were starting to feel ill when we pulled up to the shore of Sanur beach. We waded off – the huge waves made this very difficult indeed – and waited for the luggage. Amy’s was off first for a change not long followed by Jodi’s. We met our driver and our other passenger and went for the car. The driver had actually forgotten where he parked it so we lapped the car park a few times before he spotted it in the distance. In the car, packed up and on the move to Seminyak and the Ananda Resort. The traffic was still on the road and the Aussie’s were still out in full force. We pulled up to the entrance, checked in, walked to the back of the resort and dumped our bags before coming back to the front of the hotel and finding some food. It’s that awkward time where is too late for lunch but too early for dinner. We have experienced this time a lot on our travels. We stocked up on some snacks and drinks in case we got peckish later. Amy didn’t feel great so we had an early night with s**t tv. Day 155 – 15th July: Pool Day Feeling much better this morning so up for breakfast (very handy when its included in the room rate) and to the pool. This is possibly one of the better pools we have had as its fully in the sun for most of the day. We were hoping this would make it warmer … nope just as cold as the rest of them, however it is rather refreshing dip when the sun is too intense. As we were in Seminyak for the start of Indonesia, we had ticked off the things we wanted to the first time around. Our plan wasn’t to stay here twice it was to stay in Kuta, but when we walked to that area originally, we didn’t like it so decided to come back to Seminyak. Bali has turned out to be quite an expensive place as we found out so our plan was to relax as much as we can before we hit our last city. We went out to Char Char which is a bar that serves candyfloss drinks., however today the machine wasn’t working so we settled for frozen cocktails instead. Best cocktails we have had in a long time! This was very pleasing. We went for our best meal in Bali, Café Bali – cheese ravioli and lasagne with lemon meringue pie for pudding. With very happy tummies we went to bed. Day 156 - 16th July: Shopping The aim of today was to find something new to wear for when we going to Disneyland. We woke up and it was a bit over cast so we decided to hit the shopping centre (Beach Walk shopping) in the morning. We hailed a cab which took us there (£2.50 for a cab) and hit the shops. They have high street shops rather than high end shops. Jodi picked up a dress and Amy picked up two tops. Feeling successful we grab a nibble and a drink (Oreo cheesecake cookie from Starbucks – yum). We watched a practice run of a fashion show which was going to occur at some point today. They were carrying sparkly and floral golf club bags and a few of the girls were practising swinging imaginary golf clubs. We put two and two together and assumed it was a new golfing range for women. We headed back to the hotel in the taxi which was even cheaper on the way home (at least something is cheap here) and went to chill by the pool for a little bit while the sun had come out. We talked about the food we were craving and what we were looking forward to at home and both of us agreed that eating out will be something we are happy to stop. Over 100 days of eating out, not cooking
simple plain food or being able to make something your craving is taking its toll. Saying that … we were soon dressed and off out for dinner again. Day 157 - 17TH July: Beautiful blue skies We woke up to beautiful blue skies without a cloud in the sky and it stayed like this the whole day. We swapped sunbeds to grab some shade from the umbrella. We baked and rotated, baked and rotated, Amy went for a dip in the freezing cold pool. We broke from the sun and grab a drink in the restaurant (their milkshakes are pretty good) then back into the sun we went. We laid out here for most of the day as this was going to be one of our last tanning days. We showered and went out. We tried the Char Char bar and we had success. Day 158 – 18th July: Grey day We woke up this morning and it was grey, not just a little bit but full on grey skies. We had breakfast and took our time this morning. We decided to go grab ourselves a Dough Darlings doughnut and go for a little walk. We brought them back to the hotel room where we packed our stuff up as we have a 4am start tomorrow. The time went past really quickly as we watched a film before getting ready to go and eat. We wandered to Hanks Pizza (where we went for Charlotte’s birthday) ate, had a couple of ciders and chatted. We stopped off in Mad Pops for an ice-cream before heading back to the hotel to try and sleep. The ice cream was good, had a slight hint of coconut but that was fine. Day 159 – 19th July: We’re off to Hong Kong Travel time: flight 4 hrs, 4 hr waiting in Kuala Lumpur, flight 3 hrs, taxi 30 minutes. Alarm started ringing at 3:15am, snoozing it a couple of times before actually moving up and out of the hotel room. We were the only ones around apart from the guy who was going to drive us to the hotel and the concierge who we had clearly woken up from his sleep. The roads were nice and clear, getting us to the airport at just the right time. Followed the same airport routine as many of us have done before. Settled down in our seats for the first of two flights. We slept for most of the first one before arriving at KL airport for the 3rd time. We were in a different part of the airport this time which was a pleasant change. We were starving, so went to look for food (this was very challenging) and waited for our next flight to be called. We managed to change up all of our money we couldn’t change up before, Vietnamese dong, Indonesian rupee and English money. A lot of banks couldn’t change up the dong but this company would, thank goodness. Luckily it wasn’t a long walk to our gate. We have seen the inside of many different airports throughout our lives and the ones through Asia have been the most difficult to navigate or eat at. It was a long enough transfer time, if not too long, and we made our way to the gate. We boarded our next flight to Hong Kong, anticipation hanging in the air alongside tiredness and underlying feelings of thirst/hunger. I think we slept again, not too sure, soon enough we were landing. The passport control was quick and our luggage was pretty quick too. We walked to the taxi rank, hopped in a taxi and were on our way to The Bauhinia Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui. We checked in and with no idea where we were heading, we went looking for food. We ended up stumbling across a Marks and Spencer’s food. The angles were singing in our minds and we found something to satisfy our bellies and that’s when we realised Hong Kong was going to be a tricky place to eat. We slept very well in our lovely comfy beds, ice cold air-con and feather down pillows.
Day 160 – 20th July: First day in Hong Kong First day in this city, we had a few things to see on our list so we headed out to the harbour first. We encountered a slight bit of rain which made us seek shelter. We went to view the central skyline but it wasn’t very appealing. We continued to try to navigate the streets to find the avenue of the stars. Like most things in this world, it was under construction. We carried on walking in a direction and came across the cultural and space centre. We took in the sights and found ourselves at the clock tower, completely missing a reflective pool around the other side of it but its okay because that too was under construction. Like most of Asia, it was heaving with tourists so it wasn’t that pleasant to be surrounded by tonnes of people in 30 degrees of heat so we went back to the hotel for cold relief and a shower. We went out in the evening to watch the light show, arrived early and then realised we were in the completely wrong section of the harbour. We then had to rushed (and get sweat again) to get to the right side which was packed. We watched the light show which was meant to be the largest in the world and it is safe to say we were unimpressed. We had a wander round, admiring the high-end shops before our eyes and wandered back to the hotel. Day 161 – 21st July: We are on our way to Disneyland! Exciting day today …we are going to Disneyland Resort Hong Kong. we have been catching up on sleep so we woke up a little later than planned. We got dressed and headed to Tsim Sha Tsui MRT station. Got our tickets and found our way to the train. We went to Lai King station to change to the Tseung Chan line, get off at Sunny Bay to get the Disney Line to the resort. The train drops you off at an old-fashioned station, up the steps and you are at the entrance to the park. We had underestimated the heat but we were excited nonetheless. We had completely lost track of the time too. We went on Hyper Space Mountain which shocked us both. Think of X no way out at Thorpe Park but 10x’s faster, forwards and full of sharp turns which help you pick up even more speed. Also imagine lasers and Star Wars vehicles flying around the screens and there you have Hyper Space Mountain. We underestimated it massively due to the slight height restriction and number of small children in the queue with us. We also did the iron Man experience, a simulator type ride where you fight a robotic battle with iron Man over Hong Kong. this made Amy feel extremely sick to the point where she eventually was and we avoided all large rides after that. I must be getting old as this had never happened before! We stopped for something to eat and figured that the heat could possibly be making us feel ill. We caught some part of the day time parade and headed towards the lion king show. This was amazing. The actors had amazing voices and the costumes were also very very cool. The air-con was a nice welcome as we watching people dance and prance around a stage and a mechanical elephants and giraffe watched their every move. We checked the time and it was later than we thought. We went on the river safari which was like a childhood dream come true. I (Amy) had this video of a Disneyland sing-a-long and always wanted to go on this ride, never have done and now I have … result! We got good seats for the Painting the night parade but my god was the floor hot to sit on! It was an impressive parade and we munched our hot caramel popcorn too. Nearly got trampled on when it came to an end but only half an hour to wait for the fireworks. Thankfully they were different to the Paris ones and it wasn’t some mad rush to get out to the train station. We got our tickets and seethed at the fact that people are not willing to queue in an
orderly fashion to arrive at the same destination or place as everyone else. The train journey home felt like ages but it was no longer than getting to Disneyland. Tired, sweaty and hungry, we stopped off in M and S, got some porridge and headed back to the hotel. Knackered, we fell asleep and slept solidly. Day 162 – 22nd July: A very Warm day So, there was no real plan for today, we took it slow as it was going to be 33 degrees. We revisited the skyline to get some better pictures. Spent a while here as it was busy with selfie-sticks and people pushing to take pictures. Unexpectedly topped up the tan (thankfully no tans lines) and sought the comfort of some air conditioning in a few shops. Jodi treated herself to a Lush bath bomb for when she returns home. We looked in a couple of other shops but nothing here is cheap. We thought because the weather was good we would head to Victoria peak in Central but so did everyone else. We jumped on a train, walked to the lower tram station and was confronted with a 2 and a half hour (plus) queue. We heard someone ask a man who works there how long he thinks it would take, he couldn’t say possibly more than 3 hours. Amy was not prepared to wait in the queue, being as hot as it was (this turned out to be a mistake). We tried to then go somewhere to eat, found a cheesecake factory – hour long queue and very expensive, pizza from an unknown Italian restraint- £20 for one pizza … £20! We settled for pizza hut, which had been made posher and more expensive obviously. Deflated and hot we headed back to the hotel. Day 163 – 23rd July: Typhoon Warnings and Victoria peak So, we set an alarm for this morning as the least busiest time to visit the peak is early in the morning. We thought we would attempt it today although it was grey, wet and potentially going to storm. We made our way to central, luckily the train isn’t expensive and made our way back to the tram station. We queued up in the small queue and wonder why people were walking away from it. We got to the counter, asked for two return tickets and was told that we wouldn’t have time to view anything as the last train was coming back 5 minutes after it arrived. He informed us there was a typhoon on the way and they were suspending the service. Great … we headed back to the hotel as we were wet and fed up. This is where we found out a typhoon warning had been issued and that there was a cyclone typhoon somewhere else close by. We spent most of the day packing and checking whether the warning had been taken down or lowered. Not wanting to miss out, we went and tried again later. We had success … sort of. We queued up for around an hour in a nice order queue, were let through the gates and bam … we were in the middle of a group of people rushing to arrive at the same destination. This is something that was really starting to grate on the both of us. We got on the tram, stood up and we left the station. The graduation on the slope was steep and by steep, I mean bracing yourself and holding on to a pole with both hands steep. We reached the top and it was cloudy. It was a little bit of a con as the greatest view you had to pay extra for so this peeved us off a little. We got a drink and hoped the cloud would pass and it did. Hooray, awesome photos taken ... check. We left to head on the tram back down and it was bucketing it down with rain. We purchased an umbrella and it had stopped but the time we left. We got in the queue to go back down and the heavens opened, thank goodness for the umbrella. Much more pleasant on the way down, we had space to breath this time. There were quite high winds on the top of the hill and heavy rain at the bottom. We made it back to the hotel in one piece and just in time. There was an almighty clap of thunder which made Amy jump. We waited for the storm to past before attempting to sleep.
Day 164 – 24th July: We’re heading home Travel time: Taxi 25 minutes, flight 1 – 9 hrs 5 mins, flight 2- 3 hrs 30 minutes, car ride home- 40 minutes Today we head home, back to London after being away for 164 days. We checked out of the hotel, asked them to call us a cab – which arrived in less than 2 minutes – drove to terminal 1and headed to the check in desk. Smooth all the way through until we tried to find something to eat for breakfast … of course. There wasn’t even a shop to get snacks for the plane. Here we are in this huge airport with minimal signs or maps to guide you to where anything is. Our flight was called so we made a quick toilet stop where Jodi was accosted by an elderly Asian lady who tried to explain something to her, she freaked out said bye and moved inside the loo’s. Queued up, boarded, took off, ate 2 meals which weren’t actually that bad, watched 10 films between us, peed and landed in Moscow SUV airport. Smallest Transfer section I have ever seen. It was nice and quick, quicker than getting off the actual plane. Started walking to Terminal D which was a half hour walk, checked the time and we were boarding in about 20 minutes. So much for a 2 hour wait in the airport! We grabbed a drink, there was no queue system here either, headed to the gate and stood in an area of space which then conveniently turned into the queue. Neither of us were ready to get back onto another flight but we did. We took the transfer coach which dropped us off at the plane, found our seats and stood up for a while. Took off, caught up with the diary entry for today, ate (not so great) meal, napped, landed. We waited for our bags by the carrousel after walking miles to get to passport control. We waited and waited for Jodi’s bag as Amy’s had come through already and then the carrousel stopped. There was about 8 or 9 people also waiting for their bags or one of them. We spoke to the people as the luggage desk and had to fill in a form. They said they were going to send it on to her house once they had found it. Just grateful this didn’t happen at the start of the trip! We left, walked past the duty free and into the loving arms of our families. Stacy, Carol, Nicki and Dick Provided us with doughnuts and balloons to say welcome home.