Island Hopping – theplaceswe

September 19, 2016

Why so windy Malta?

As I mentioned in my previous post we were looking forward to getting to Malta to enjoy the hot weather and get out and about to explore but nature had a different plan for us. When we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon our room wasn’t ready so we went to the top floor to eat (yes we eat a lot!) and sit by the pool but it was so windy that it just wasn’t enjoyable. Once our room was ready we went upstairs, dropped our bags off and went for a quick walk. When we got back we spent the rest of the night eating room service and talking about our lives and what’s changed for us. At some times the conversation was difficult but when we woke up the next day we both felt a little bit lighter. Spending 24 hours a day together can be hard but we have been doing it for so long now that it’s quite easy for us, however that doesn’t mean we don’t have to put in effort and that’s what that conversation was about – checking up on each other to make sure everything was ok.

We left our hotel in the afternoon after a quick FaceTime call to Mark’s mum and got a taxi to the port. As we were paying the taxi driver we asked him where the ticket office was for the ferry. “There isn’t one, you buy the tickets when you come back”. Usually places make you buy a return ticket when you leave but not this time, so we simply walked straight onto the ferry and within 30 minutes we were on Gozo island. From the port in Gozo our apartment was only 1km away so we had planned to walk it. Once we got to the port and looked out we saw that yes, our apartment was probably only 1km away but it was on a constant incline. So walk we did and by the time we got there we were so hot and tired that we collapsed on the couch but sometimes there is just no time for rest so we grabbed our wallet and walked to the supermarket to buy food for the next few days. We always buy a lot of water because we find if we have it we drink it, but if we don’t have it we can forget so we bought a 6 pack of 2L bottles, along with all of our food. We obviously didn’t think it through because the walk back carrying everything was a killer. We made it back though and after that we truly collapsed on the couch.

It was so windy while we were in Gozo that going to the beach was just no fun. We spent our 2 full days there venturing out to check out some sites when it wasn’t raining or blowing a gale. We managed quite well and on the day we had to leave the sun was finally out and the wind was gone so we woke up early and got a small taxi boat to Blue Lagoon which was absolutely beautiful.

I’m so glad we got there early because there was hardly anyone there and within an hour boats full of people started to arrive and that was our sign to leave. Mark had worked out our timing for the entire day and we were on schedule for everything until we got on the taxi boat to go back to Gozo and the driver decided to take a longer route and added 20 minutes to our trip. This threw everything off course so when we got back to the port we raced back up the hill to our apartment, had the quickest showers ever, grabbed all of our stuff and raced back down the hill carrying our backpacks. We got on board the ferry back to Malta with 3 minutes to spare. We looked like absolute ferrels, but we made it and could relax for 20 minutes before we had to move again. Once back in Malta we got a bus to the airport which took an hour, we dropped our bags off at the luggage deposit and walked back out to the bus stop to get another bus out to Valletta, the capital of Malta. I’m so glad we went out. Valletta is so beautiful and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and admiring everything before getting back on the bus to the airport.

Thank god we were staying at the airport hotel, because after speaking to some friends they cancelled plans to go into the city to see them as they had just flown in that day and were exhausted (we could totally understand that feeling) so we got our bags and pushed them on the airport trolley all the way to our room, ready to go the next morning. I can always tell when we are tired when we fall asleep without eating dinner. But luckily we slept because we are on our way to Barcelona to see some other friends so we will need all the energy we have for that!

Plus side of staying at the airport hotel!

July 25, 2016July 27, 2016

Island time

After spending 2 days at a hotel near the airport we decided it was best we utilised our time in Sardinia so we booked an apartment and hired a car for the drive there. Our car was of course the quintessential Italian Fiat 500. It was a tiny car so we had to put the back seats down just to fit our backpacks in but after doing so we drove for 2.5 hours to Cala Gonone. We arrived, got the keys to our apartment and went straight to the supermarket to buy groceries for the next 4 days. After eating our lunch of bread, prosciutto and mozzarella we went straight to the beach. This was pretty much our schedule everyday in Sardinia. Wake up, eat, go to the beach, eat, go back to the apartment, eat, go for a walk, and then finally eat gelato to finish our day.

The only day that was different for us was when we hired a boat to go and explore the coast line. Driving around was so amazing because we were able to look back at the island instead of looking out to the sea. We spent 6 hours driving the boat around a small strip of water. Looking back on the island of Sardinia was breathtaking. The colours changed along the whole strip but everything blended in so well. At one section the plants on top of the cliff were a grey-green colour, with some being so close to silver that they shone in the sunlight. The water also changed going from a turquoise blue to a rich sapphire blue, but either way it was so clear, allowing us to feel like we were in the shallows. We anchored a couple of times to stop and enjoy our surroundings and also to jump in and swim. The water was so refreshing it took away the scorching heat from the sun. We didn’t just drive around though or anchor to swim we also anchored close to a private beach where we didn’t stay for long because ants swarmed all over our beach towels and a group of kayakers rocked up taking up half of the beach so it gave us a good reason to get moving and to go check out one of the caves. Mark dropped me off at the beach and then drove the boat out to deeper water to anchor and then swam back. The beaches either had sand or rocks and this particular beach had rocks which either swallowed your feet or made you feel so unbalanced while walking that you looked like a baby deer walking. After our day on the boat we went back to our apartment to cook dinner where I discovered that I had heat stroke after spending an entire day in the sun. Yay for me!

DSC07769_Fotor — We splurged on ourselves and hired a boat 🙂

We enjoyed our time in Sardinia so much even though we did very little in comparison to some of the other places we have been to. It felt like we had a little bit of normality in our crazy world.

DSC07730_Fotor — Cooking – a little bit of normality for our lives.

We left Sardinia for Cinque Terre which I was really looking forward to because so many people raved about it. We stayed in the smallest of the 5 towns which is also on top of 360+ stairs. I had to psych myself up once we arrived to climb the stairs in 30 degree heat with our backpacks but thankfully before we started we bought some bottles of water and noticed some people standing around what looked like a bus stop and sure enough a minute later a bus drove up and would easily take us up the top in 5 minutes for 2.50 Euro. We were straight on the bus happily standing because there were no seats. Our days in Cinque Terre were spent pretty much in the exact same way as Sardinia. And, just like in Sardinia we spent our days relaxing and one day out exploring which was just as well because all of the other towns were so full of people that there was no way we would have relaxed in them. We loved Corniglia and would recommend it to anyone staying in the Cinque Terre. The day we spent exploring was amazing though and Mark took so many unbelievable photos that when he first showed me some of them I thought he had just googled some.

DSC08352_Fotor — One of the most amazing photos! Courtesy of Mark.

One of the other reasons I think we’ve spent the past 12 days relaxing is because we didn’t have any internet and I’ve been writing this on a word document waiting for internet, and not just any internet but internet that is strong enough to open up a website. That means that this post will be delayed and you’ll know we finally have a strong wifi connection somewhere.

March 29, 2016

Green hair be gone!

Those of us who know me and Mark well know how much we love Vietnam. We find when traveling though we meet people who don’t love it as much as we do and we just don’t get it. How could you not love Vietnam? The food, the people, the landscape, the cities, everything is just as it should be. After spending some time in Koh Chang speaking to other travellers we think we realised why people love other Asian counties more than Vietnam and it’s because most people we meet are from Europe escaping the winter there so they want amazing beaches. We love going to the beach when on holidays but they don’t need to be amazing beaches – we have amazing beaches back home.

Phu Quoc is an island south of Vietnam that is becoming increasingly popular year after year. It’s still at that stage where is quiet enough that we could ride a motorbike (something we never think of doing in other Vietnamese cities) but built up enough that we could go get a decent burger when we were over Asian food.

One thing Phu Quoc didn’t have was a lot of grocery stores so when I was searching for bi-carb soda (after a lovely message from someone back home) to tackle my green hair I quickly gave up and started searching for tomato sauce as I had read that the red and acid from the tomatoes removes the green from hair. I figured there would be tomato sauce at the store as I had seen it at pretty much every restaurant we ate at. Turns out I was wrong. Hardly any stores had it and then one store that I was certain would have it had sold it so heading back to our hotel one night I was certain I was going to have green hair for weeks to come which made me deeply distraught. What if I left it too long and it just stayed for months? Once we got back to our hotel Mark walked to the reception desk and asked for some tomato sauce for my hair. The girl who spoke relatively good English was really confused. By the time I walked in Mark was sitting at the reception desk on google translate explaining what the tomato sauce was for. Her response was “oh I thought that was what you said but I didn’t understand” she then wanted more information about why it happens so there we were at 10pm explaining why blonde hair goes green in chlorine and why she doesn’t need to worry because she has dark hair.

I read that I should wash my hair before putting the tomato sauce in so that’s what I did and half an hour later my dirty hair was washed and then subsequently covered in tomato sauce. I didn’t take a photo of my experience- I was slightly disgusted the whole time as I don’t eat tomato sauce let alone cover my hair in it on a regular basis… I must say though that despite the smell it actually worked! Pretty much all of the green was removed in one go.

Besides tackling my green hair we spent a couple of days on a motorbike riding to different parts of the island checking out the beaches and heading to the market at night to eat. It was there that we found ice-cream rolls. We have these back home at a place called Scrolls so we were stoked to find them on an island in Vietnam for 30,000 Vietnamese Dong (approx. $2). We ate them nearly every night for desert 🙂

We spent Easter Sunday face timing back home and spending the morning booking flights and hotels for the next part of our trip. We have 2 more weeks in Vietnam but are yet to book anything in so will just see how we go once we leave Phu Quoc on Tuesday.

We are really looking forward to coming back to Phu Quoc in years to come to see how much the island has changed. Mark is looking forward to coming back to try out all of the golf courses. Every time we pass one he always notes the name and when we get back to our hotel he is on google looking it up. I’m pretty sure he has a list going in his phone for places we will go back to just so he can play golf. #caddylife

March 13, 2016

Oh you little sea urchin.

The flight across from Australia to the Philippines was pretty good considering it was during the day so I wasn’t totally exhausted by the time we landed. I’m in 2 minds about whether I prefer day or night flying. I’m sure I’ll come to a conclusion by the end of our trip.

When we arrived in Manila I can’t say that I really took notice of much. We got to our hotel, checked in, ate some not so nice food at the restaurant downstairs and then went back up to sleep. The next day we were up and back at the airport for our flight to Palawan.

Ahhh Philippine Airlines. Thanks for the ₱3400 (approx. AUD$100) extra baggage cost – you made my day. Normally we never need to check our baggage. We always make sure we have checked baggage with our ticket and if we don’t we are well aware of it before we fly. This time we weren’t and the surprise was not a welcome start to our trip. The flight from Manila to Palawan was pretty normal and when we arrive in Puerto Princesa it started to feel like we were on more of a holiday so we were in pretty good spirits despite the baggage expense.

We walked around for a while after our late lunch/early dinner and came across a talent contest for the local schools. Each school performed a routine with drums, dancers, what I think is a xylophone and a leader with a whistle. Sounds weird I know but we were slightly mesmerised and watched 2 schools compete before it all started to sound the same and we went back to our hotel to get a decent sleep before our 5 hour van ride to El Nido.

5 hours in a car or van would normally be ok for me but I discovered on that van ride that I may suffer from motion sickness. Thankfully I wasn’t sick in the van but I was so glad to arrive in El Nido and get to our hotel.

We didn’t do much during our few days in El Nido. We got a kayak one afternoon and paddled across to another island which took us over half an hour one way! It was pretty amazing to sit on a deserted beach by ourselves. There was nothing there apart from an old boat and some wild dogs. We made our mark in the sand but who knows if anyone would have seen it before it was washed away by the high tide.

Our destination from our kayak adventure.

On our last day we went Island hopping. We met a lovely mother of 2, Indre, who was doing the tour on her own while her husband looked after their daughters and we spent most of the day talking and getting to know her which was nice. On our second stop there was the option of getting a kayak and kayaking to the lagoon or walking/swimming. The 3 of us took the second option and early on we should have just turned back and got a kayak. Mark was leading us through, pointing out any jellyfish we should avoid on the way and as Indre and I were making our way to shallow water where he had stopped she thought she had been stung by a jellyfish and then a minute later I thought the same, but we both agreed it didn’t feel like a sting it felt more like a bite. Further along the way as we were trying to avoid the jellyfish and now what we thought were biting fish, Mark swore really loudly and told us he had stepped on something spiky. Now, when he said spikey I just thought he meant a spikey rock but as I got closer to him and saw he was in pain we back tracked a bit to more shallow and clear water so we could sit down and examine his foot. It was then he told me it wasn’t a rock but a thing with spikes that had been stuck in his foot that he pulled out. I immediately thought poison being the ‘worst case scenario person’ I am and told him to sit and sure enough there were still thorns in his foot. Indre went back to get a kayak so we could actually go look at the beautiful site we were there to visit. Back on the boat we all investigated our injuries. Mine looked more like a scratch so I was fine, Indre definitely had bite marks on her leg and Mark had thorns in his foot which the boat operator told us was ‘just a sea urchin. You need hot water and pee’. So Mark got both. Hot water from the boat and later pee from himself. Ha! All I could think of was that episode of Friends when Monica gets stung by a jellyfish and Chandler and Joey are there talking about peeing on it!

You can watch the Friends clip here!

Our next stop was another lagoon which we didn’t hesitate in getting a kayak for. This one, even though it was smaller was much more beautiful and mystical even than the first. It also didn’t have any jellyfish so after our kayak we were able to swim around. We stayed close to the boat though to avoid all sea urchins! Despite the seemingly disastrous start to our Island hopping tour we had an amazing time and we so glad we decided to go ahead and do the tour. We had been trying to decide for days before finally booking it.

ElNido3 — This is a local who I swear followed us from Island to Island selling beers to Mark. He must have known he was a sure sale.

The tour was a great way to end our time in El Nido and I wish it just stopped there and we were teleported to the airport in Puerto Princesa except we weren’t. Mark got sick that night from the sea urchin sting and the 5 hour van ride the next day was so bumpy I actually think I fainted at one stage while trying to stop myself from being sick and Mark was pale faced the whole drive hoping he wasn’t sick again.

We leave tomorrow morning to get 2 flights and a ferry to make our way to Boracay which I think will be just as beautiful as El Nido was. I’m looking forward to more relaxing by the beach, although the weather here is so hot and humid at the moment we are trying to stay cool where ever we go.

Much love, B xx