Oceania has been a relatively easy place for us to travel. Sure, very expensive compared to Asia, but it is a lot simpler to make yourself understood… everyone speaks English! Except perhaps in Tahiti or the other Polynesian Islands. But then, naturally most of our time has been spent in the major countries here, Australia and New Zealand. And after struggling with tonality and the hundreds of mutually unintelligible regional dialects around China it’s been quite restful to be able to communicate with everyone easily. Although the typical twang in the Oceanic accents took a bit of getting used to at first!
It’s also been nice to be able to construct our own basic meals rather than having to eat out every night. Try buying simple bread and cheese in China. Go on, I dare you! The best bread you’ll get will be sweet, glazed, and will probably have some fishy flakes sprinkled on it. Or if you are in Japan you’ll find they cut all the crusts off their very white air-filled bread and then squish it into a small package. Very odd. In South East Asia you can occasionally find a place that does a reasonable sarney (BLT!), but we could never work out where they got the ingredients from to make our own stuff. And you risk encountering the odd caterpillar crawling out of it! Just as well you can get cheap tasty noodle or rice dishes in these places! But fortunately Australia and New Zealand have shops and supermarkets just like the UK – meaning Gary could have some nice bread, ham, cheese, and even a bottle of New World red from time to time!
I think we managed to get a better grasp of New Zealand than Australia while we were out here. Australia was just so vast (and expensive) that we struggled to see more than a few places. Even so we had a great time and saw some weird things – and managed to meet up with friends. But by hiring cars and touring around the country at our own pace in New Zealand we managed to see and do loads, which was great as it is a truly beautiful place. Both countries were fun to visit though, and we will hopefully end up in this neck of the woods again in the near future – although not immediately as it is not cheap to get to the other side of the world!
Anyway, the next continent we visit will be South America. Our first stop, Easter Island, is not exactly on the continent however. This tiny lump of Chilean rock is over 1000 miles from the nearest neighbouring island, and the native people are apparently predominantly of Polynesian descent. So I suspect our first 10 days in the most remote corner of South America won’t give us a particularly typical sample of the place but will probably add a unique flavour of its own to our trip. Then it’s on to Santiago for Christmas, before we start returning north on our route back to the UK. With a few stops en route of course! Have a look at http://www.catch-up-with-the-sun-southamerica.blogspot.com (reachable from the navigation panel on the right of this screen as always) for details – and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
It’s also been nice to be able to construct our own basic meals rather than having to eat out every night. Try buying simple bread and cheese in China. Go on, I dare you! The best bread you’ll get will be sweet, glazed, and will probably have some fishy flakes sprinkled on it. Or if you are in Japan you’ll find they cut all the crusts off their very white air-filled bread and then squish it into a small package. Very odd. In South East Asia you can occasionally find a place that does a reasonable sarney (BLT!), but we could never work out where they got the ingredients from to make our own stuff. And you risk encountering the odd caterpillar crawling out of it! Just as well you can get cheap tasty noodle or rice dishes in these places! But fortunately Australia and New Zealand have shops and supermarkets just like the UK – meaning Gary could have some nice bread, ham, cheese, and even a bottle of New World red from time to time!
I think we managed to get a better grasp of New Zealand than Australia while we were out here. Australia was just so vast (and expensive) that we struggled to see more than a few places. Even so we had a great time and saw some weird things – and managed to meet up with friends. But by hiring cars and touring around the country at our own pace in New Zealand we managed to see and do loads, which was great as it is a truly beautiful place. Both countries were fun to visit though, and we will hopefully end up in this neck of the woods again in the near future – although not immediately as it is not cheap to get to the other side of the world!
Anyway, the next continent we visit will be South America. Our first stop, Easter Island, is not exactly on the continent however. This tiny lump of Chilean rock is over 1000 miles from the nearest neighbouring island, and the native people are apparently predominantly of Polynesian descent. So I suspect our first 10 days in the most remote corner of South America won’t give us a particularly typical sample of the place but will probably add a unique flavour of its own to our trip. Then it’s on to Santiago for Christmas, before we start returning north on our route back to the UK. With a few stops en route of course! Have a look at http://www.catch-up-with-the-sun-southamerica.blogspot.com (reachable from the navigation panel on the right of this screen as always) for details – and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment