South Africaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

We said goodbye to the bright lights of Hong Kong and journeyed on to South Africa.  For Martin, this was a particularly exciting part of our trip as once again he was able to re-live his childhood experiences.  The first part of our trip was a bit like being 12 years old again - I was introduced to every chocolate bar he'd ever eaten and he took me to Spur for dinner (the equivalent of Wimpy).  Hmm.

Thankfully, we met up with one of his good friends and some of his family who have 'grown up' here!

Dinner with Sean and Leigh

First we saw his good friend Sean.  Martin and Sean were in a band together many years ago, auditioned a guy called Kahn and didn't think he quite cut it.  This guy is now the lead singer of South Africa's biggest band - The Parlatones...who performed during the world cup ceremony!

The Parlatones!

We journeyed on to the Drakensberg mountains for a few days of hiking (a good excuse for Martin to indulge in his favourite delicacy.... dried meat).  We then recovered from the exercise by relocating to a tiny town by the sea, where we stayed in a lovely little cottage.  Everything was very quaint, including the owner, or so we thought until the day we went into her house and saw a shot gun lying on her kitchen table to shoot the monkeys (which are like the common squirrel in Umdloti)!!!

A happy hiker!

The last leg of our South African adventure involved a hardcore 20 hour drive (over 2 days) to Cape Town, where we were lucky enough to be wined and dined by Martin's cousin, Alan and girlfriend Andrea....a nice treat from our increasingly economical meals!

Amazing fish restaurant in Calk Bay

The city of dreams... well, my dreams anyway!

Hong Kong is a place I’d wanted to visit ever since I’d first seen footage on Blue Peter when I was about 11.  Consequently, I could barely contain my excitement as we exited the airport and sped past a jungle of skyscrapers sparkling in the night sky.

Sadly, as sod’s law would have it, I contracted food poisoning in Singapore which kicked in when we got to Hong Kong and momentarily, I thought my time in the metropolis were doomed.  Thankfully my personal Doctor slipped me some pills, I made a speedy recovery and we spent 3 days whizzing around to city to make up for lost time.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Hong Kong. It is a truly amazing city!  The reasons why:

Shopping:  Hong Kong is bursting at the seams with shopping malls and markets and I shopped until Martin dropped! 

The food: OK, so Donkey meat, chicken feet and edible bird’s nests may not be my cup of tea, but the dim sum was incredible!

The buildings: Super-slick skyscrapers tower over narrow sheets, packed with crumbling buildings and lots of character.  The tacky sky scraper light show, which looks like it’s straight out of an 80s movie, is a must-see!

Happy Valley races: What other major city has a huge racecourse just a metro ride away? Spending our Wednesday evening gambling and drinking copious amounts of beer at the races was a real highlight...despite not winning a single bet between us!

Hong Kong feels amazingly safe and also has some great parks, museums, an efficient transport system and nightlife to rival London… perhaps I should look for a job on the tourism board!

Bintang Bali madness!

Ah, Bali.... a haven for meditating, vegetarian hippies who like nothing better than a good massage?  Erm... depends where you go!

We flew to Bali for 5 days of sunshine and serenity, having become sick to the back teeth of the rain in Malaysia and feeling the need to lay our hat in one place for a while.

Sunshine?  Check. Serenity?  ....Eventually!  We stayed in Legian which is just a stone throw from Kuta - the most Australian place in the world...outside of Australia.  The place is crawling with groups of young tanned and tattooed aussie guys wearing Bintang beer singlets on their backs and holding Bintang bottles in their hands.  Bintang beer is everywhere!

When in Rome!

Add 1 million street vendors to the mix, selling anything from taxis, to massages, to viagra (which Martin was frequently offered!), then add 600 speeding motorcyclists and you have chaotic Kuta!  Even the local vendors greet you with 'G'day mate' - spoken with impressive Australian accents!

Unfortunately our plan for a healthy week of bikram yoga was foiled when I inconveniently got ill and ended up spending most of my time inside our peaceful, air conditioned hotel room instead.

But we did manage to venture over to Ubud.  The journey itself was hairy (or should I say furry)...

One of the many crazy motorcyclists!

But we did indeed find the Bali I had been looking for - quiet little streets, lined with quirky cafes, arty shops and the occasional temple.

Balinese women in Ubud

Flamin' heck!

We said goodbye to the orangutans and journeyed on to the island of Mabul - the gateway to Sipidan (AKA one of the world's best dive sites).  Once again, things didn't quite go to plan...

Sipidan island

The accommodation we were supposed to stay in burnt to the ground a few weeks before we arrived (this is becoming a recurring theme for us!).  We had two choices - spend twice the amount on an alternative hotel or spend less than half the amount to stay in a nearby 'guest house'.  We settled for the latter.

Our loosely named alternative 'guest house' was located in the heart of the water village (i.e. a shanty town on stilts).

Our next door neighbours

Let me describe try to recreate it for you...

• The whole place was surrounded by rubbish, mangy cats and dogs and sweets little kids who played marbles all day rather than go to school
• Most 'buildings' were made of corruaged iron and other odds and ends and looked like they were about to collapse at any moment
• We had no electricity between 6am-6pm
• There was no wash basin
• The shower was a cold drip

Add to this the fact that we had torrential rain from the moment we arrived so we were permanently caked in mud and you get a glimpse of life at 'Long House' and why it was a bit of a shock to the system.  Our initial reaction was to abandon ship and check into the nicer hotel on the 'nicer' side of the island but in the end we thought better of it... realising as we stepped over several people who slept on the dining room floor that we were lucky to have a bed at all and it would do us good to live a little more primitively for a few days.

The poverty and people begging for money was incredibly sad but the guest house owners were lovely, the scuba diving was absolutely incredible and i'm very glad we went there...I just wish it would have STOPPED RAINING!!!!!

Swimming in sharky water!