Vietnam Adventures

One Pillar Pagoda

We have planned to take a shuttle from the airport to Hanoi's Old Quarter. However as we waited for the shuttle to leave more and more customers were leaving. In the end one of us told us that the shuttle will leave only once it is full! So we have been offered a minibus ride for $5 each. Because he was going half empty he stopped by the road where a guy was waiting with loads of boxes with routers. They through all of them in and we were off to Hanoi:-)

We stayed at Serenity Hotel near the 'invitation card printing' street. That is to say that each street in Old Quarter has its own business purpose.

With so many beautiful and cheap souvenirs to buy we have decided to Send some of our stuff back home. In Hanoi there is an international post office that will pack everything for you as they need to see the content before sending. We have chosen sea transport that costed us only $30 for 6.5 kilo. But it has only one disadvantage; it might take four months to travel to the Czech Republic! So it might be a bit late for some of our gifts; hopefully ready for Xmas:-). Hanoi is busy but still very charming city. I personally enjoyed the most Water Puppet Theatre; originally the puppetry was performed on rice fields, nowadays it has its own theatre with traditionally dressed performers and themed Vietnamese music. The show takes you around different customs and cultures around Vietnam and English panels always explain the future performance.

Tough and Beautiful Lombok

So we have finally arrived to Gilis, Lukas' long awaited destination. After landing at Lombok Airport we realised that public transport would be time-consuming so we have taken a 'black' taxi. We have negotiated the price down so hopefully rp200,000 wasn't too expensive for two hour ride to Bangsal. As expected they have tried to inflate the price of port entry and force us to take private boat, but in the end we have paid only what was on the ticket rp2500pp and my resolute public boat order worked and the taxi driver took us to the correct office. After purchasing our ticket for only rp10,000 we waited only about 20mins until the public boat was full and our ride to Gili Trawangan could begin.

We have been awaited by a staff from a hotel we booked in advance. He walked us through the main street of Gili T before he turned into a paradise called Martas Hotel. The rooms are actually a two story bungalows with bathroom and outside sitting area downstairs and huge room upstairs. The outdoor area has a nice pool with lot of vegetation, most of it was in blossom during our stay. We were still jet-lagged so we just hang around the pool and later drop into one of the beachfront restaurant for a dinner. While drinking our cocktails we watched the sunset. So romantic.

Indonesie, aneb od more do hor a zpet

Je mi lito, ale budu muset vynechat zbytek popisovani nasich toulek po Zelandu, abych se mohl venovat dalsi casti naseho cestovani – navratu domu pres Indonesii a Asii. Anglictinou disponujici ctenari si jiz precetli zbytek nasich Novozelansskych dobrodruzstvi od Kaci, ja se pokusim doplnit je po navratu domu...ale ted uz k samotnemu navratu:

Auckland jsme opustili rano v utery 2. rijna. Celou trasu z Aucklandu az do Prahy jsme si vicemene naplanovali dopredu a nakoupili letenky, takze v utery nas cekaly prvni 2 z celkoveho poctu 9 letu. Leteli jsme spolecnosti Jetstar, coz je nejvetsi nizkonakladovka druhe polokoule. Bohuzel, mezi lidmi neni prilis oblibena a to hlavne kvuli vysokemu poctu odlozenych nebo zrusnenych letu. Ale jeikoz jejich ceny nemaji konkurenci, rozhodli jsme se to risknout. No, hned nas prvni let mel zpozdeni. Nastesti jenom 1 hodinu a diky priznivemu vetru to pilot na 13 hodinovem letu dohnal, takze v Singapuru jsme pristali podle planu. Meli jsme trochu casu si prohlidnout jedno z nejmodernejsich letist na svete a uz jsme byli opet na palube Jetstaru, tentokrat do Jakarty. Jeste jednu vec musim zminit – oba jsme byli dost prijemne prekvapeni kvalitou jidel u Jetsaru...na to kolik jsme za to zaplatili to byl skoro luxus :-)

Jakarta z 32. patra

V Jakarte jsme vylezli pred letiste a uz se na nas vrhla skupinka taxikaru (neoficialnich), nabizejicich nam tu nejlepsi cenu za odvoz do mesta. Jelikoz jsme jeli navstivit Katcinu byvalou spoluzacku, meli jsme presne instrukce co delat, co odmitnout a s jakou spolecnosti jet...coz se ukazalo jako ohromne uzitecny info, usetrilo nam to spoustu penez.

Taxik nas dovezl na udanou adresu, kamaradka uz na nas cekala, dala nam info co delat dalsi den a slo se spat...Jenom poznamenam, ze bydli kousek od centra v komplexu sice starych, ale prekvapive vyborne udrzovanych vezaku...sidliste u nas by se od nich meli hodne co ucit. Bydli ve 32 patre, takze pri pohledu z balkonu se nam delalo spatne :-) Ale fotky vam urcite reknou mnohm vic...

Crazy and Polluted Jakarta

 So our last travelling block has begun. We have left rainy Auckland on 2^nd October with Jetstar flight with a stopover in Singapore. As with Air Asia we were a bit worried how the flight would go as there is a large number of complaints on the web. But after a small hitch of having one hour delay, everything went smoothly. Even with the delay we have arrived before the estimated landing time, if you have your own headphones you can watch in flight TV channel, our baggage was transferred correctly in Singapore, and the food was also really nice with a lot of meat. We have even received a meal on the flight from Singapore (our third one) and they provide two drinks as standard with every meal. So overall we had a pleasant flight.

After arriving to Jakarta, we had to apply for visa on arrival. These are processed very swiftly as part of the immigration clearance. We paid US$25 each and were out of the airport in less than 30 minutes including the baggage reclaim. Outside the easiest is to take a taxi to the city. We were recommended a Blue Bird or Express. These are reliable companies that use meter to provide a price so no haggling is required. We have found later on that Express is slightly cheaper. On the top of the normal fare you have to pay airport surcharge of RP10,000 and motorway charge of RP12,500. So overall the trip to our destination costed us RP130,000 (NZ$16) which I think is a really good deal considering that the airport is about 40km out of the city. In general, taxis are really good way to travel around Jakarta as they are fast, reliable and only about triple the price of public transport (half an hour journey cost about RP25,000 which is about NZ$3).

Sulphur Adventures and the End!

Once we left Tongariro National park our journey continued to the East. We drove through Gumboot Capital of NZ with a giant Gumboot and also through Carrot Capital with a giant Carrot:-). But our goal was Napier and nearby hot springs.

Before we reached Napier we headed to the close mountains to camp in one of the DOC free campsites. But we have chosen this one because of nearby Mangatutu Hot Springs. We arrived relatively late but Lukas and his love for bath won and we had to try the springs before we went to sleep:-). As we walked down we realised that we are joining a small party there. In the small plastic pools there was a group if travellers and local kiwi guy with bottles of home made spirits so we happily jumped into hot water and joined the party. Before we left for Napier in the morning we went to soak ourselves in the pools again and enjoy the views. 

 

Napier is an Art Deco town build up almost completely from scratch after a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.9 in 1931. It was nice to see how the town was able to reinvent itself and it is certainly an inspiration to a todays Christchurch rebuild. I would call Napier a city of palms because most of the main roads are fringed with palm trees so it sometimes feels like you are driving through Beverly Hills.

The Eruption of Tongariro in Mordor

Shakespeare's Clock Tower

 A lot of things happen since I last wrote here. We are well settled in Auckland, both in the working process. It is much harder to get back to the “normal” routine than we would imagine. All days are the same, nothing is happening...work, eat, tv, sleep. But we have also started to plan and organise our departure and next adventure so you have something to look forwards to. The blog had undergone a facelift and we hope that you are enjoying our new look. Let us know if you have any tips, suggestions or just your positive comments. We always love to hear from you.

Anw, lets go three months back (can't belive that it is so long now) when we arrived to Stratford. A small town trying to be its even smaller, but a little bit more famous English cousin. The town has a clock tower, far from the geniosity of "Orloj" in Prague, but still pretty good. Three times daily it shows the play of Romeo and Juliet with relatively large figurines and the story with music come from the speakers behind your back. 

Makahu Tunnel - Forgotten Hwy

Stratford has also one more significance. It is the beginning of Forgotten World Highway. It is a rare sight on North Island but this part of island has been somehow forgotten since mining ended. Nowadays it is trying to reinvent itself as tourist attraction with beautiful sceneries, old tunnels and even its own republic (The village of Whangamomona declared itself a republic in 1989 as a protest against a decision for it to be moved to other district which would mean that they would have to support their rival rugby team.)

The following day we returned back to civilisation and prepare ourselves for the Tongariro journey ahead. The first glimse of Whakapapa village, the centre of Tongagariro National Park, was amazing with chateau and snow capped mountines behind. Unfortunately, my fears became reality when DOC told us that there is an ice on the crossing and that we should not attempt it without crampons:-(. It was very disappointing for me, but they offered us a way how to enjoy at least a part of the Northern track. But before we head to our overnight camp, we had to see our first Tongariro Lord of the Rings sight. It was the skifield just above the village where hobbits first entered Mordor. There you can first see the natural differences of this national park. Taranaki was volcanic park, but you can't compare these two. The evidence of volcanic activity is everywhere with the sand and the weird stones around everywhere. Not surprising that this area was chosen to be the dark burning scene of Mordor.

Fotogalerie opet funkcni!!

Rozhodl jsem se privest opet k zivotu fotogalerii primo zde na blogu. Mela par kladnych ohlasu (nebo minimalne jeden:-)) a je o trochu pohodlnejsi (a o dost hezci) nez Picasa - tam ty fotky samozrejme zustavaji, tohle je jenom dalsi moznost jak si je prohlednout... Tak doufam, ze si je uzijete stejne jako my jsme si uzili jejich porizovani :-)

Abel Tasman a nase dobrodruzstvi na mori

Vychod slunce pred nasi plavbou - Abel Tasman

Jeste nez se pustim do popisovani udalosti davno minulych, mam pro ty, kteri se uz nemuzou dockat naseho navratu:-) dobrou zpravu: koupili jsme prvni letenku (celkem jich budem potrebovat asi 6-8). A to z Aucklandu do Jakarty, hlavniho mesta indonezskeho ostrova Java. Odtud bysme se meli presunout na jeste mensi ostrov Flores, kde si udelame mensi dovolenou....snad se uz konecne dockam toho valeni na plazi:-)

Na sever severozapadni...

Wilkin Young Walley

Z meho slibu ze budu psat blog kazdy tyden opet nic nebylo...ale na to jste si uz urcite zvykli :-) Uz je to vic nez dva mesice od meho posledniho zapisu (aspon ze Kacka vas udrzuje jakz tak informed) a behem te doby jsme stihli dokoncit jizni ostrov, presunout se na sever, procestovat co se dalo a usadit se v Aucklandu. Ale pekne poporadku...

Wellington, Taranaki and Lots of Rain

Unfortunately, the first thing we experienced on North Island was the never-ending wind, that changed calm cruise through Malborough Sounds into a bumpy ride on the sea, and rain, of course, that almost did not stop until we have left Wellington. But it wasn't that bad. The weather let us to experience NZ national museum Te Papa in more detail and we both fell in love with it. In the end we spent almost two days in there and still did not manage to see it all. So Luky decided that we will later on fly from Aukland to finish the whole museum:-). Apart from Te Papa we visited The Parliament and enjoyed the tour around Beehive, main building and the library very much. It was not as extraordinary as the London's parliament but I was the chosen one to be allowed to sit on one the chairs in The Chamber:-).