Thats all Folks !!!!!!!

Total Flights Taken : 23

Total Hotel Rooms Stayed in since 1st Sept 2011 : 40

Number of overnight train rides : 2 (one in India one in China)

Sites camped at :     15  (New Zealand) ,  1  (India)

Countries Visited : Turkey, India, Nepal, Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, USA

If you have been following the blog, you might have realised that we should be in Peru by now. Due to certain unexpected logistical reasons climbing Machu Picchu was not going to be an option right now. So we have cancelled the last 3 months of Farmers World Tour and we are now back home in sunny Hadleigh UK.

The flight home was amazing, there were only a few people on the plane and we each got a row of seats to stretch out on which was the best flight of the whole trip.

Coming home was very weird, everything was as we left it and it was peculiar to just step back into our lives as if nothing had happened 6 months later. We both felt that we had only been away for a short time and that the whole 6 months had flown by but with so many incredible memories. Of course we are disappointed to not be able to continue the rest of the trip but we have a new chapter in our lives which we are very much looking forward to.

So an amazing 6 months of travel with experiences to last us a life time. Here are some highlights :

Fav Countries :  R  - New Zealand           C New Zealand

Best Memories :  
R    -  Sitting on Bondi Beach watching the surf and finding out some interesting news, Landing on a glacier above Milford Sound in NZ                  
C  - Catching an 85lb Mekong catfish in Krabi in Thailand

Scariest moments : 
R - driving the twisting mountain passes in the massive camper in NZ (even though I was not driving) and and sitting on the back of a cramped elephant in Nepal and being charged by a wild rhino
C - Negotiating an uphill gravel road in the camper van (thanks sat nav) whilst in NZ

Most impressive sights seen :   
R   - Taj Mahal, The 12 Apostles (Great Ocean Road in Aus)
C -  Shanghai lights at night, Lake Tekapo in NZ

Worst Memories :  
R - Getting into a lift in China and being joined by 3 men who were all smoking - yak!!, Bird poo always dropping on our bed in Fiji.       
C - Emailing our travel agent Helen in November to say we needed to cancel the last 3 months of the tour

Fav Meals :        
R - On Malolo Island in Fiji had steak one evening was gorgeous, Burger King in Singapore after a month of Chinese food           
C - Roast Chicken at Chitwan in Nepal after 10 days of no meat in India

Worst Meals :    
R & C  - Several in China (one that consisted of just fish bones and heads springs to mind)         
                        
Fav wild life seen    
R - Koalas along the Great Ocean Road and Pandas in Chongqing zoo in China
C - Kangaroos and Cockatoos  at Halls Gap in  Aus


Acknowledgements

We would not have been able to even contemplate Farmers World Tour without the help and support of the following people

• Our Travel Counsellor Helen Knowles http://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/helen.knowles who booked all our tours, hotels and flights. Everything went totally to plan with no problems whatsoever. She was also totally unflappable when we had to cancel the last 3 months. We thoroughly recommend her. Thank you so much.
• Carole who looked after our house. It was such a relief to get a message each week saying everything was fine at home. Thank you.
• Suz and Brian who agreed to look after our 2 cats for the duration. We missed them loads but knew they were happy and safe with you.
• Our Parents : Jean & Rob - (Chris) ; Suz & Martin and Bill & Sheila (Ruth) who each in their own way gave us the inspiration for our amazing journey.
• Anyone who has read our blog - thanks for showing an interest !!.

We have no plans to travel anywhere else for a long time so .............

That's all Folks !!!!     

Universal Touring

Our Last Day !!

Our final day in LA was spent at Universal Studios, we decided to visit as it was near our hotel and we fancied doing the studio tour which we had seen on TV before. Universal Studios turned out to be a theme park but not with the usual massive roller coasters, it has several "interactive" 3D type attractions. Unfortunately we had chosen to visit on a Sunday before Presidents Day (a public holiday in the US) so the park was extremely crowded. We had to wait about an hour and a half to see get on the studio tour which was defiantly worth it. You basically sat on a truck and were driven round the sets of loads of famous films and TV programs. They stopped the bus and pointed out various points of interest (ie The Jaws set, War of the Worlds plane crash etc in fact loads of stuff). We were most impressed with seeing the real Kit from Knight Rider!! - amazing. The tour round the filming lot took about an hour there were various "experiences" en route such as the 3D Jurassic Park and King Kong part in which King Kong met some dinosaurs and the truck started shaking but it was very realistic (although the Japanese man sitting behind us fell asleep!).
The rest of the park was a bit of a let down, there were so many people mostly eating burgers. The ratio of fast food outlets to people must be the highest compared to any place on earth.

Its Kit !!

Tour bus going round the studios

Jaws film set

Wisteria Lane (home of Desperate Housewives)



Plane crash scene from film "War of the Worlds"

At the park entrance

A day out in LA LA land

Flights Taken : 22
Hotel Rooms stayed in since 1st Sept : 40

We got up early on Kauai and returned the jeep. We then flew from there to Honolulu and then onwards to LA. When we arrived in LA it was late, we had previously booked a shuttle bus on the internet to pick us up and take us to our hotel in Universal City (the Sheraton Universal) and this all went to plan. When we arrived at the hotel it was 2345 and we had been travelling all day, we were starving but there was no room service or anything else to eat to we just went to bed and looked forward to breakfast in the morning.
In the morning things looked better and after a hearty breakfast (which to Chris's delight had a bacon and eggs element) we were ready to face everything LA had to throw at us. Having done extensive trip advisor research we had decided to go on a tour to see the main sights and already had this booked again via the interweb. This proved to be a really good day out. It was a light hearted tour on a small bus which took us round all the main sights. These included the Chinese Theatre (with all the hand prints), the Avenue of the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, The Hollywood Hills, Beverley Hills (saw Simon Cowells house and Tom Cruise's flag pole and chimney!!), Rodeo Drive, The Beverley Wilshire Hotel (Pretty Woman), Sunset Boulevard, Farmers Market and then Downtown with all the sky scrappers.

Avenue of the Stars on Hollywood Blvd with Leslie Neilson

Cary Grant - Ruths old fav

Jack Nicholson

Peter Sellers

Tom Hanks

Outside the Chinese Theatre with Julie Andrews

George Clooney

Harry Potter

Michael Jackson

John Travolta

Star trek

Michael Jackson

Looking back along Hollywood Boulevard

LA from the Hollywood Hills

Hollywood sign in background

This is Simon Cowells house in Beverley Hills

Outside the Beverley Wilshire Hotel

On Rodeo Drive



Enjoying a donut at LA Farmers Market

Trying out lots of Kauaian Beaches

We have spent the last 9 days exploring the island in our Jeep. Kauai is a small island and quite circular, from where we were staying on the East Coast nowhere was more than a 45 min drive away. Having said nowhere I am actually refering to the beaches, there is not much else to see (apart from the Canyon - see later).
It was their "winter" there but the temperatures were still in the 80s, however it was very very windy especially on the north coast. There were plenty of nice beaches in the south though. The island is quite rural with many coffee plantations and other farms. We were disappointed not to see much genuine Hawaiian culture though (of course you can pay to go to a "traditional" luhua - with a free garland and fire dancing - but it all seemed a bit put on for the tourists). The tourists (almost all American) were definitely in the majority on the island, many of them owned condos or time shares and came every year and most things on the island catered for them.
We did have a great time and the beaches were lovely but I would not call them spectacular. For tourists from the UK there are far closer places to go which are just as amazing. So although we did enjoy Hawaii, it did not quite live up to the ultimate beach destination we were quite expecting it to be.
One day we drove up to the centre of the island to Kauai's most famous attraction the Waimea Canyon. Apparently this was described by Mark Twain as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" (that's what Lonely Planet says anyway), it was an amazing sight though. However when we got to the very end, where we were supposed to see where the Canyon meets the coast, the clouds had come over so we could not really appreciate the reported "spectacular view" which was a shame though it allowed Chris to practise his Jeep handling skills on the roads.
On our last night in Kauai we had a brilliant meal at a local restaurant which we really enjoyed. The starters on Hawaii are always referred to as "Pupus" which confused us initially. For an entree (this is the main course) Ruth had the Mahi-Mahi (fish) and Chris had the Fillet Mignon. Overall this was a nice end to an interesting and relaxing 2 weeks. Hawaii - TICK.

Beach 5 mins from our hotel

A North shore beach

Tunnels Beach - a massive cave across the road

North Shore

Big Wind = Big Waves

Salt Pond Beach in the south

Waimea canyon

Wild chicken - they are everywhere

Our jeeps numberplate

Back at the hotel

A trip to the south in our shiny new jeep

We took the plane across from Oahu to Kauai. This was a really short flight that only took 30 mins. As we were looking out of the window into the sea when we were about to land we were lucky enough to spot a whale out of the window which was amazing.

We picked up our hire car at the airport. We had booked a basic model but we were persuaded to upgrade to a 4 wheel drive jeep (only $11 a day so quite a bargain). We arrived at our accommodation and were really glad that we had spent the extra money on a "suite". We are at the point now when we have seem one too many cramped hotel rooms. The place where we are staying (www.plantation-hale.com/) is really an apartment with separate bedroom and full kitchen. It has loads of space and is defiantly better than a hotel room (or camper van!). So after loading up our jeep at the local supermarket we settled in.

Today we decided to explore the south part of the island and ended up at a popular beach called Poipu. Everywhere you go on Kauai there are wild chickens around and the beach park was no exception. It was a nice beach and loads of people were snorkelling. On the way back we took a wrong turning and ended up going down a gravel road towards a quieter beach. The jeep certainly proved the correct choice at this point. This beach was practically deserted and was really idyllic. From the beach we again were amazed to see a pod of whales just a bit out to sea. They seemed massive and were coming out of the water and spurting water for ages. A fantastic end to a beautiful day.

Chickens everywhere

Chickens contemplating taking a dip

Main part of Poipu beach

Deserted beach near Poipu

Watching whales from the beach

Our Kauai wheels

A full circuit of the island of Oahu

 Today we spent the day touring round the whole of the island. It was a very long day (8am to 6pm) and non stop. We joined a group tour mainly full of Americans, we wanted to get out of the city and see the island as its not somewhere we would ever probably visit again.

 First stop out of Waikiki was to Diamond Head where we saw hundreds of surfers trying to catch a good break. We then travelled to a beautiful beach called Hanauma Bay. This was where apparently Elvis filmed a famous scene from a film (forgotten the name – sorry Mum!). It did look gorgeous down there with loads of lucky people swimming and snorkelling. We then drove further around the coast stopping at various scenic locations (including the spot where the beach scene in “From Here to Eternity” was shot, (in fact we saw loads of filming locations such as Lost, Karate Kid, Jurassic Park & 50 First Dates).

We then visited the Byodo-In Temple which is a Japanese temple built by the local population there (for a while we felt like we were back in China). We also went to the north part of the island (called the North Shore) where the massive waves were with some brave surfers having a go. Along this coast we were lucky enough to see a green sea turtle who had come in to the beach for a rest.

The rest of the tour was a bit of a let down and consisted of visiting 4 different gift shops that all sold the same type of tat. The rest of the tour group were lapping it up and bought bag fulls. We did go to the Dole plantation (where they grow the pineapples that we have tinned). Unfortunately this turned out to be just a gift shop and we did not see many actual pineapples themselves (apart from in the ice cream). Our American fellow group members were purchasing bright yellow t shirts with “Dole” written on them (don’t think this word has quite the same meaning in the US as in the UK). We did drive back via the US naval base at Pearl Harbour.

So an interesting day all round. Tomorrow we are flying over to the more rural island of Kauai where we are hiring a car and hope to explore at a more leisurely pace.

Overlooking the surk break at Diamond Head

Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay

Halona beach

Pali lookout point

Byodo-In Japanese temple

China Mans Hat Island

Green sea turtle on the North Shore