We arrive in the late afternoon in the New-Zealand capital. No time to visit a museum such as Te Papa - the museum of the Maori history. After these several hours spending in the car, we prefer to go for a urban walking. The athmosphere is more relaxed than in Auckland with numerous pedestrians streets and a hill in the middle of the city that offers you to rest after a day of work or transport. That's the perfect place to have a view from above over the city and its harbour.
The guesthouse where we reside belongs to the YHA (youth hostelling association) and it is recognizable with its logo Hostelling International : a blue triangle with a house and a white Christmas tree. With 312 beds, it's a factory! However, the atmosphere is nice even if we stay only one night.
The next day, we take the ferry to the southern island. It likens to the ferry to go to Corsica, the vehicles embark on the lower decks and then, the passengers get to the upper decks for the 3-hour journey. From the upper deck, the rugged coast scrolls. A calm crossing on a flat water.
When we arrive, we take back the car to go to Motuekau. Tomorrow, we'll do our first New-Zealand trek with a night in the tent within the Abel Tasman park.
Keyword - boat trip -
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Wellington and the ferry to the southern island
By dorian on Tuesday 6 November 2007, 19:15 - RTW-New Zealand
Friday 26 October 2007
On the Phang Nga bay by long-tail boat
By dorian on Friday 26 October 2007, 21:33 - RTW-Thailand
Krabi is a small laid-back pier by the andaman sea which turns into a frenetic night market at dusk. We can spend a couple of days here to relax and move about to the different islands and beaches in the vicinity. We book an all-included trip to the Phang Nga bay within one of the travel agencies that stretch out along the main street. The Phang Nga bay is the Thai answer in miniature to the superb Vietnamese Ha long bay.
The next morning, the minivan drives from guesthouses to guesthouses to pick up a motley blend of tourists. We briefly stop at a temple carved in a grottoe. Hordes of monkeys leap from a branch to another one and come to swiftly snatch bananas and peanuts tourists offer. With a full stomach, the four-handed animals grab the veines and dash uphill.
A few kilometers further, we swap the minivan fo a long-tail boat. The low tide unveils the knotty roots of the mangroves. Intertwined roots that change the banks into an impenetrable mangrove. We stop at the floating village of Pianyee where we have lunch.
In the beginning of the afternoon, the digestion starts on a small inflatable kayak. We go through caves the low tide made accessible to come out into a kind of well. Open-air cavities at the center of a stone peak. In the middle of these long rocky chimneys carved by the time, we don't hear the loud engines and the shouts any more. We live some unique moments of serenity in a secret place with the weird sensation these secluded spots give. The feeling to be a pioneer, the first one who discovered this mysterious and restful place. Forgotten the throng of tourists that come here to visit around ; the openings are so many everyone can enjoy his "own" lake with a private access.
We hop on the boat to sail to the island called the James Bond Island since a scene of the movie Goldfinger was shot there. A giant and unique nail punches the bay. An impressive picture but the island is overloaded with tourists who damage the calmness of this bit of isolated land.
A day full of attractions and gorgeous landscapes even if the heavy touristy concentration ruin the pleasure a little bit.
We go back to Bangkok by bus to spend a last night in the capital. 15 days passed among tuks-tuks, paradisiac beaches and tropical fish. The time went by too fast. It's always what we say when we liked what we've just lived.
Friday 19 October 2007
From the Khao San Road in Bangkok
By dorian on Friday 19 October 2007, 00:03 - RTW-Thailand
What a pleasure to burst in on the Khao San Road, heaven for backpackers of every kind. Even if some people will prefer other less noisy and less colourful streets. That's here, a few years ago, I started my first trip with a rucksack and I fell in love with this way of life. This fantastic sensation of feeling a total freedom on the route, choosing a hostel for its style or its location and not because we have to. And Thailand is such an easy country to travel in that it was and still remains the perfect destination for a first nomadic trip. Even if the Thailand's ease of access and low-cost prices bring some disadvantages, beginning with the mass tourism which spoils a lot of places. We loose the serenity of the beautiful sand beaches we like to walk on, the feet into the water.
I meet Armelle after more than 2 months and it started to be long. We go for a stroll onto the Thonburi canals. Departure from the Chao Phraya bank by long-tail boat. A slender, colourful boat, powerfully propelled by a truck engine and terribly noisy, snakes onto the narrow canals. Houses on stilts and aquatic plants square the twists of this district off that locks protect from the Chao Phraya flood.
Before going back to the bank we started from 2 hours before, we visit the Wat Arun.
As we get back, we stop at the Wat Pho whose temple harbours a gigantic Buddha that lyes on his right side. Innumerable leaves of gold wholly cover the lying statue. We go round the gilded colossus and a row of metallic bowls resonate with the falls of coins followers throw in each one of them.
The architecture of the religious and official buildings has the distinctive feature of being tremendously wrought and ornated with vivid colours. Most of the buildings are wholly or partially decorated with these leaves of gold ; the sunbeams ricochet off and splash us. That's the way the Wat Phra Kaeo, king's palace, gives out its multi-hued, shining beams in the central district of Bangkok and attracts a crowd of tourists eager for oriental curiosities.
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