London

Kirsty and I were pretty excited about returning to London for many reasons; the quirky people, familiarity, tea, biscuits, access to a kitchen, mosquito-free atmosphere, friends. Within 3 hours, all these yearnings were satisfied and we were back to normality.

Our flight back was a total nightmare. We arrived at Miami and soon found out first leg to Detroit was severely delayed. If we took the delayed flight we would have missed our London connection. Instead they re-routed us through Atlanta. This left us with about 11 hours to play in Miami airport. We bought some trash celebrity gossip magazines and hit the bar; a fantastic way to kill 11 hours by the way!

Our flight to Atlanta was running late too, and as soon as we arrived we found ourselves sprinting through the airport to reach our London bound flight gate – when we got there everyone was already on the plane. If we were sprinting, there was no way that our bags would have made the connection, so it was no surprise when they didn't show up in London. It made the journey home much easier though, as we strolled from Paddington Station back to Baker street on a freeeeeeezing afternoon!

The bags finally showed up the following day, much to my relief – I had already sent all my belongings to Australia and was left with a jumper and a pair of jeans, and no shoes!

 

I had 6 days to reunited with as many people as possible, and actually managed to cram in quite a lot. Jetlag was on my side…sleep in while people were at work, then party into the wee hours. I went to Andrew's comcomedy.com live night on the Wednesday. Thursday I visited my old colleagues at the bank then out for drinks with Mike and Roger – it was great to see them, and a funny feeling being back in that office, it felt very very small after being outside for the last 3 months! Friday night was a Uni girly night in Windsor. Saturday I made it to the huge Triathlon Expo at Esher where I met up with Japan Ironman friends and met Chrissie Wellington again (my hero – 3 time world champion). The rest of the time I spent with boyfriend Andrew (another tragic love story…ripped apart by my silly international lifestyle. L)

I really wanted to go to the British Museum before I left – they have sooooo much stuff in there. So many times on my travels they have little signs saying – the original is located in The British Museum.

Departure day, Monday 15^th, came around extremely quickly. My flight was at 11:05pm so I had the day to pack and watch more Olympic craziness during the day, hanging out with Kirsty and Andrew. Lisa popped by on her way home from work, just while I was dyeing Kirsty's hair! Then it was time to go. Andrew was going to come with me to the airport for a final farewell. All was going to plan, we jumped on the bus to Paddington Station – where the Heathrow trains leave from. We bought tickets and went over to look at the flight departure screens. Hmmmmm that's weird, I couldn't see my flight on the board…then it hit me, like an elephant falling on my head from a 100 storey building. My flight didn't leave from Heathrow at all…it left from Stansted!!!!! Oh NOOOOOO. It's only the FURTHEST airport from London. I have never ever felt such a feeling of dread in my entire life. I've never missed a flight in my life, and I wasn't planning on missing this one either. I think I burst into tears, it had been a very emotional few days! Action plan – taxi to Liverpool street station then Stansted Express. I left Andrew at the ticket barrier as I boarded the train – not exactly the goodbye that I had planned. I had worked out by this point that I was going to make the flight and was pretty sure I wouldn't be back in London that night. So, Airasia flight to Kuala Lumpar. £150, not bad. I had the screaming baby infront of me and a strange passenger next to me, but as an overnight flight, the 12 hours seemed to fly by. It did feel very strange arriving at night – quickest day ever.

I flew into KL (LCCT), which is the airasia hub, about 15 minutes shuttle bus from the main KL airport. I wasn't aware of the two terminals and I'd booked the airport hotel that turned out to be super close to the other terminal. I found two other British girls who were in the same situation and we shuttled around and found our bed for the night.

I had to be back at KL (LCCT) for a 7:20 am flight the following morning, so was able to pack in about 5 hours sleep. I proceeded to have several nightmares about missing my flight, and awoke 3 times within the 5 hours to check the time. I had a wake-up call from the front desk, then when I was inconveniently in the shower, a follow-up wake-up call. How annoying! I suppose some people go back to sleep!

Now I find myself up in the air again, bound for Tawau on the Island of Borneo. I have 3 seats to myself, just had my pre-booked meal (which I didn't really need) and am hoping to be met by the 'Dive Junkies' shuttle.

 

Miami - Super Bowl Weekend!

So, we find ourselves back in Miami - our last weekend on the road. It also happens to be Super Bowl Weekend...one of the biggest party weekends for the US. We weren't aware of this event at time of booking, but it definitely added a new dimension to the trip.
We caught the Go Shuttle shared taxi from Fort Lauderdale to South Beach, shared with a glamour model and a club DJ from New York. On the way along Washington Ave we saw a club where Snoop Doggy Dog was playing, massive queue outside. Apparently everyone was in town for Super Bowl - Even Brad and Angelina (we just caught up on all the celeb gossip after 3 months of withdrawal from the world). We were dropped at 'Jazz on South Beach' hostel - we'd booked through hostel world, everything was booked up (we couldn't understand why...doh!) Anyway, the hostel was insane, they couldn't put us in the same dorm room, couldn't give us female dorms, couldn't guarantee that tomorrow would be better, 18 year old girls tottering around wearing hot pants and mini-skirts, music blaring...we were SO culture shocked! We couldn't get out of there quick enough! This makes us sound so old and over it!!! Perhaps we are!!!!! We ended up at a hostel called 'Santa Barbara International Fun Hostel!' It turned out to be a better location and much more chilled.
We felt totally knackered that first night, starving hungry, struggled to get a taxi from one hostel to the other, overwhelmed by all the party people and the football fans...slept like a log.
The next day we hit the beach. They had Celebrity Beach Bowl going on, stars from Dexter, Gossip Girl and J-Lo were all playing football on the beach! How exciting!
Then we hit the shops...such great shopping! We have no room for shopping in our packs, but somehow we make it work!
The next day we ran on the beach in the morning, then slept on the beach, then hit the shops again, then watched the super bowl. Everyone seemed to be supporting the New Orleans Saints - the underdogs...everyone running around the town 'Who Dat?' which is their slogan. Crazy crazy. We were offered tickets to go to the game...$900! We watched it in a bar, both teams heavily supported within the bar...insane. It's a miracle the place held together, people running and jumping everywhere!
Finally headed off to the airport, then the chaos ensued. We were meant to be going Miami Detroit London. The Miami Detroit flight was severely delayed, which missed the further connection, so we were pulled off that flight and re-routed through Atlanta. We were then stuck in Miami airport for about 10 hours - shopping and drinking at the bar! Our flight to Atlanta was severely delayed also, and we literally had to sprint to make the London flight - so no big surprises when our luggage doesn't show up in London eh.  :(
We caught the Heathrow Connect back into Central London, headed home to the freezy flat and fired up the heating, the oven, anything that produced heat basically!
It's great to be home (even though none of my belongings are here!!) There's a lot to be said for familiarity after 3 months on the road.
We woke up to SNOW this morning. I leave for Malaysia in 5 days time, my mission is to get my missing bag back!!!!!!!!!

Antigua, Guatemala

We left El Tunco beach in El Salvador on Tuesday. Our hotel, Mopelia,
runs a shuttle service direct to Antigua, pausing at the border for
passport stamping. It was glorious compared to our chicken bus
experiences of late!
Antigua is similar to Granada in Nicaragua - an old brightly coloured
colonial town, now a Unesco World Heritage zone, surrounded by huge
looming volcanoes. The setting is incredible. Antigua runs shuttle
services to anywhere and everywhere. You could definitely fly here and
shuttle back and forth to all the top places in Guatemala without
having to deal with the crazy public transport systems. We shared the
shuttle with two Aussie surfer lads. Staying in a decent little hotel,
complete with resident pushy tour operator - skinny, scarf around his
neck, pops up constantly asking us where we're going...we slammed the
door in his face and still he persists!
Our first trip was to the active volcano in the region, Pacaya.

We left at 2pm on a mini bus and drove about an hour to Pacaya
Volcano, it's about 2800 metres or so. Our tour guide named our group
of 14 people, Toucan. He proceded to blow his whistle and yell
'Toucans' non-stop for the rest of the evening!
We hiked up the dusty volcano path for about an hour and a half,
trailed by horses - the 'natural taxi' for those who struggle with the
climb. As we neared the lava flow field we could hear the volcano
hissing and spurting, just like a steam engine. We were about the
clouds, overlooking 3 other volcanoes as the sun set. As we watched
Pacaya's peak we could see lava spurting out the top. Everyone was
totally mesmerised. We clambered over the old lava flows to a hot spot
where people were roasting marshmallows. In previous years the lava
flows had been very active, coming down the volcano, but the day we
went, the only lava was the stuff spurting out the top. As it got
darker the lava was brighter. We had to head back down in the dark,
mighty bright to the rescue again. Our tour guide had a nightmare
trying to round us all up to return down the volcano, blowing his
whistle non-stop, toucanssssss let's gooooo. He must have this problem
every day! Our path down the volcano was lined with glowing fire flies.
Definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far, cannot wait to
upload photos when I get back to London next week!
Today we chilled out and walked around this beautiful town. We just
sat in a cafe, bagel barn, and watched a really depressing documentary
called 'When the mountains rumble' about the terrible history of the
Guatemalan people and the injustices of civil war :(
Tomorrow we fly to Miami.

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El Tunco, El Salvador

El Tunco, El Salvador

Amazing waves, amazing weather, funky little surf village with a great
vibe, good social scene, amazing food.
Spent a few days chilling, doing absolutely nothing - we haven't
really done much of this on our travels! Today we looked after a guy
who jumped off a rock into shallow water and fractured his foot. Oh
dear. The local dentist came to the rescue and drove us to the
hospital - scary driving again! No charge for x-rays and a plaster cast!
Kirsty has been surfing loads. I haven't, I've had a sore back for
almost a month - not quite sure what's going on there. Not too serious
but not feeling like surfing.
2 more days here then off to Antigua, Guatemala for 3 nights, then we
fly to Miami for 3 nights, then back to London for a freezy few days!!

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Sunset in El Salvador, Playa El Tunco

Tikal to the surf

We spent an afternoon walking around the little island town of Flores.
It draws tourists simply because it lies in the middle of a lake,
connected by a bridge. After about 10 minutes we had walked around it
and had about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Guatemala city.
We chilled out at a little cafe called 'Cool beans'. It had wifi and
hammocks, but the salsa on our nachos had that nasty fizzy off taste -
we knew immediately and got more. After cool beans we relocated to a
beautiful empty hotel across the lake, we read books and killed
mosquitoes then headed for the bus station.
We haven't done an overnight bus since the freezy freezy ice bus in
Colombia. This was the total opposite- The sauna scorcher bus. At
about 1am we awake to the booming sound of the tyre exploding. We then
sit by the road for 2 hours while the driver sorts out what to do.
They end up changing the tyre (aided by our mighty bright torch
light), but in the process manage to deflate the spare tyre... 4 tyres
across the back (1 of which was flat - but better than noisy shredded
tyre). We rolled into Guatemala city about 4 hours late.
We were heading for the pacific coast in search of waves. We caught a
chicken bus ( old American school buses now used as local buses - they
stop everywhere...extremely slow!) bound for Sipicate. The lonely
planet listed this as one of the highlights of Guatemala, surf
capital. The bus took forever, it would zoom along little country
roads picking up and dropping people off before parking up ( in the
scorching sun) in each village for 30-45 minutes. We finally arrived
at the coast, piled our stuff into a tuctuc headed for the surf
paradise hotel resort, Rancho Castillo. Tuctuc got lost and took us
somewhere totally different, then realised, then short-changed us for
his mistake. Grrrr.
So, Rancho Castillo is on the beach, separated from the town by a
swampy canal, you cross over by speedboat. First impressions were good
- resort with 2 pools, on the beach, rooms were spacious, resident
crocodile pen, massive restaurant etc. We checked in and it soon
became apparent that we were the only guests in this huge resort. They
told us the restaurant opens at 5 - We were starved from not eating
breakfast or lunch. We came back from our stroll on the beach and most
if the day staff had gone home - just 2 guys and a child remained. I
found some menus and told him what we wanted, then we
waited...waited...for an hour. We then had a conversation that
concluded that the restaurant wasn't open, we couldn't have dinner
here and that we would have to speedboat back into scuzz town to get
food. Sooooo angry (mainly because we were super hungry) our Spanish
is not great but it was clear that we were trying to order food - menu
in hand. Our nice boat driver showed us a good place to eat (he waited
for us, personal escort). The main reason we were here was fir surfing
so bright and early Kirsty heads out to check out the surf. There were
waves, but really small and it was low tide, wasn't going to happen.
We checked out (argued and paid less for the room) and got back on the
chicken bus, this time headed for the surf coast of El Salvador.
We had our bikinis in these breathable bags attached to the outside of
our backpacks, which were now on the roof of the bus. We realised
later that it must have been the overweight pervy bus conductor whol
had stolen our bikini bottoms - sicko!! Kirsty was first to notice
that they were gone. 'ah, you must have left them at the resort' I
assured her. Then I checked and mine were gone too :( yuck!
We crossed into El Salvador - tuctuc buggy assisted us between the
immigration offices at the border. We had hoped to catch a bus to the
surf town of El Tunco but all the buses only went as far as sonsonate.
We splashed out and got a taxi, which was worth every penny. Our taxi
driver was also a driving instructor, so his car had a brake pedal
under the passenger seat! I was tempted to use it soooo often as this
guy was a shocking driver. We swerved about 3 dogs before finally
smashing into one - yelp! Terrible! We arrived at El Tunco after dark
but were happy to see lots of surfers walking around. Hooray, hostel
on the beach!

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