tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39485672009-02-21T05:24:17.209Zthe adventures of clip and clopa record of our foolhardy attempt to backpack around the worldclophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-37938640089724588382007-07-27T03:18:00.000Z2007-07-27T03:19:01.324Zclophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1095499603752377252004-09-18T08:51:00.000Z2005-04-13T10:39:05.676ZGreetings from Adelaide.What a hectic week we've had. I've existed in a kind of dream state for most of it; a surreal, mind-altering existence punctuated by the occasional flicker of reality.We left the UK last Friday, flying through the night to Singapore and the on to Sydney. The family goodbyes were traumatic but tolerable, but then four hours into the thirteen hour flight I suddenly started clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1089114741449790972004-07-06T11:07:00.000Z2004-07-06T12:04:01.533ZWhat are they doing now?
Since we arrived back in the UK clip has been working as a Dog Instructor for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. She trains the dogs, most of which are rescue animals, to alert their future deaf recipients to sounds like smoke alarms and oven timers. Unfortunately she is based in the south of England, near Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, which means that we see each clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1083349647711574712004-04-30T18:27:00.000Z2004-04-30T18:41:35.013ZPublished by The Kununurra Echo on 12th February 2004
Notorious business closes
A notorious Kununurra business has finally closed its doors, but not without continuing controversy.
S. Parker Mechanical Repairs, also known as Battery World Kununurra, was recently the target of a Consumer Affairs investigation.
While the fact that the owners are moving to the NT might be welcome news to many, clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1074591487115598982004-01-20T09:38:00.000Z2004-03-11T19:27:16.623ZThe coughing contents of the Manchester-bound departure gate at Singapore airport offered me my first glimpse of what life would be like back in the UK. Most of the other passengers were English and making their way home from various far-flung holidays. After four months in Asia three things about them were readily apparent; they were predominantly Caucasian, they were physically big (and often clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1073772692948457252004-01-10T22:05:00.000Z2004-01-20T09:45:12.560ZOur brilliant adventure lasted 359 days.
How much did it cost?
We had no income for a year and were very careful to keep an eye on how much we were spending as we went along. To make this easier for ourselves we bought our famous Book Of Sums and wrote down in it how much we spent each day. "What geeks," I hear you thinking, but it makes an interesting read, and if you are planning to travel clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1073680766621719992004-01-09T20:37:00.000Z2004-01-09T20:41:10.216ZMy body has arrived home.clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1073527743761609092004-01-08T02:09:00.000Z2004-01-09T20:46:15.716ZTravelling by local buses in India is not only cheap but also marvellous fun. Numerous private companies ply each route with grotty battered old buses with ripped seat covers. As usual in Asia the scheduled departure times are academic - the buses leave when they are full. In order to attract passengers and speed up the filling process the conductor stands near the back of the bus and slaps the clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1073209334131489512004-01-04T09:07:00.000Z2004-01-08T03:40:04.030ZRecently I have discovered the existence of an inconvenient condition which affects males when they are sunbathing. I have named it "Sunbed Knob".
I don't know if it is the design of my swimming trunks, the spacing of the plastic ribs across the sunbeds or the fact that I am always surrounded by at least a hundred bored onlookers but I can guarantee that, after just five minutes of sunbathing, clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1073055086626272572004-01-02T14:51:00.000Z2004-01-08T02:56:21.780ZWe wanted to visit Palolem beach, located some 100km south of Anjuna, after Christmas but knew that it would be impossible to find accommodation in Anjuna when we got back, during the run-up to New Year. So we decided to leave our big rucksacks in our Anjuna room for a few days while we went to Palolem, ignoring the fact that we would be paying for an unused room.
The journey to Palolem involvedclophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1072970058947325822004-01-01T15:14:00.000Z2004-01-01T15:15:52.000ZHappy New Year everyone.
love clopclophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1072782208482092292003-12-30T10:56:00.000Z2004-01-08T02:47:06.310ZWhilst the bacteria from Neil and Emma's chicken currys were busy festering and reproducing inside their tummies, we caught the evening train to Agra. They mustn't see many white people at Agra railway station because we spent our entire two hours there (waiting for our late train) being gawped at by mass crowds of Indians, having our photographs taken and being hounded (and attacked) by grubby clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1072249470728987472003-12-24T07:02:00.000Z2003-12-24T07:05:52.950ZTo all those of you that celebrate Christmas...
Merry Christmas!
and to those of you that don't...
Happy Holidays!
love clop xxxx
clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1072220524732094362003-12-23T23:02:00.000Z2003-12-24T07:12:47.590ZI have been home now for six days and I am just starting to settle in. I felt very much like I did the last time I popped home. Very floaty, as though I didn't fit in anywhere, just visiting. I have had a bit of trouble chatting with friends and family. I feel as though I have lost my ability to chit-chat. But, that too after a few days is starting to come back. I think I probably chose the best clippitynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1072088024093425192003-12-22T10:13:00.000Z2004-01-05T11:16:33.903ZIn order to annoy me as much as possible, the air traffic controllers at Delhi International Airport specially arranged for my flight (which was packed full of Indian people who complained about everything and never said thank you) to land a few minutes behind two other immensely-full passenger jets. As a consequence the queue to clear immigration was wrist-slittingly long. It wound back and clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1071671795927155852003-12-17T14:36:00.000Z2003-12-19T12:39:04.500ZVietnam Immigration Officer: "Your passport and boarding card please."
clop hands them over.
Vietnam Immigration Officer stares disdainfully at the documents and his little screen for a while, with a face like a half-sucked lemon.
Vietnam Immigration Officer: "What was the name of the hotel that you last stayed in?"
clop: "I have no idea."
Vietnam Immigration Officer: "I need to know the name of clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1071557901955899412003-12-16T06:58:00.000Z2003-12-16T06:59:33.700ZWe're famous!
We're being featured on the homepage of http://www.gapyear.com and there's an interview with us here
w00tclophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1071466654028357892003-12-15T05:37:00.000Z2003-12-15T07:04:38.873ZPosted by clip
I feel very strange. It is very nearly time to go home and although I am excited about seeing my family and friends, and there isn't anywhere I'd rather be at christmas time than with my family, I am very nervous about it too. Travelling has been our life for so long and going home doesn't feel like going home; it's like planning to go away from what we know all over again.
I tooclippitynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1071297066233553322003-12-13T06:09:00.000Z2004-01-07T03:47:45.356ZToday's blog episode nicely illustrates the continuous perils of travelling.
It was Monday morning. My passport had already been at the Indian Embassy for five days but would not be ready to collect until Friday evening. Singapore Airlines had kindly arranged for us to fly for free to Singapore on the following Monday. We had booked accommodation in Singapore for Monday night. Everything seemed clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1071210313553904922003-12-12T06:25:00.000Z2003-12-18T05:13:12.950Z"This table ok? Sit here yes? Scramble egg? Vesheytaybull? With noodle? Vesheytaybull with noodle? Two bottle Spite?"
This is the sound of a person who can actually speak English perfectly well but is ordering some food from a foreign waiter and thinks that by adopting an extraordinary accent, making everything into a question and talking as if they're addressing a three-year-old they will help clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1070973528595411662003-12-09T12:38:00.000Z2003-12-11T11:39:25.763ZThe other morning clip woke up with a look of relief on her face and gasped, "Thank goodness you woke me up! I was just about to have to do a tumbling skydive for Noel's House Party. And the worst thing was that there was only half an hour left before I had to do it and they still hadn't shown me how to work the machinery!"
Women eh?clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1070885877916432292003-12-08T12:17:00.000Z2003-12-08T13:52:23.326ZI'm pleased to say that Vietnam is slowly growing on us.
We've had some extremely bad news and some extremely good news recently, and there have been a number of both frustrating and facilitative developments. On to those after a round-up of our travels through Vietnam so far.
Call us Mr and Mrs Lazy but, having struggled more than two thousand miles through Southeast Asia on public transport clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1070528787707011052003-12-04T09:06:00.000Z2003-12-04T09:16:01.263ZVietnam is a major disappointment. We won't come here again.
In Vietnam many people capture wild monkeys and keep them locked up in tiny bare cages or chained together in the open so that they spend every minute of every day of the rest of their lives fighting each other, trying to hide under rags and rocking back and forth in frustration.
By Southeast Asian standards Vietnam seems to be quite clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1070089396143269062003-11-29T07:02:00.000Z2003-11-29T07:04:05.513ZI am proud of my parents.clophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778758657522318718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3948567.post-1069935192795181052003-11-27T11:58:00.000Z2003-11-27T12:25:27.606ZI can't believe it's time to leave Laos! :o( It turned out to be the prettiest and friendliest place by far. I would definitely go back there for a holiday. The people were great - so happy and always smiling. Even the language was fun, it's really springy and easy to learn. Well, clop struggled a bit with the numbers which was a shocker, but I thought it was a doddle. Vietnam next. Neither of clippitynoreply@blogger.com