Shailen's week in S.A without Alisa

Well, Alisa left me for a week and a half in S.A and I spent it with my immediate family visiting my extended family. It was really great seeing everyone again as it has been 6 years since I have been in S.A. Seriously, all you do when you're visiting family is eat, eat and eat again. You have a huge breakfast and then you go over to someone elses for lunch and they have prepared a huge lunch and then the same thing happens for dinner!

I managed to go and see places where I grew up including the houses I stayed in as well as my old primary school, Parkdene Primary. This school was in a predominately white area and Presheen and I were the only non-whites in the school but we never really noticed it. I was even able to meet up one of my old teachers and have a chat with him. It was a great trip down memory lane for me.

The week that my parents were leaving, we decided to go to Lost City, which is this awesome hotel and water theme park out in the middle of a lush green valley about 200km away from Joburg. Its in the middle of nowhere and is just fantastic. Its got an Ancient Village theme to the place.

Nishay standing on the bridge leading to Valley of the Waves

Me facing the other way on the same bridge. If you look carefully in the background, you will notice carvings on the rock face of an elephant - there are others in that area of a cheetah and a monkey but hard to see from this photo.

On the hour, they bridge has a mock earthquake and it shakes and has smoke coming out of vents. Quite an experience :D

Monkeys run around freely and scrounge for food in the bins but keep their distance from humans.

We went to the Valley of the Waves and this place has water slides, a lazy river and a proper wave pool!!! - not like the crappy wave pools at Mt Albert but an actual wave pool that has a wave that you can surf if you want and the pool is outdoors and its huge!!!

The Wave Pool area.

There is also a slide that is known as the Slide of Courage, and this is a slide that has a near vertical apex and you drop down and slide to the bottom. I wanted to get a photo of me going down the slide and so had to go down 4 times before we got it and then I went down again to have it filmed. It was so much fun!

I also managed to lie my way into their 5 star hotel property (security is tight) and got some great photos.

Elaborate fountains that were at the Palace

The entrance to the Palace

Pools come complete with waterfalls and a resteraunt area.

The Palace at night with the fire burning strong

The ceiling at the foyer of the Palace

After a vary teary goodbye to my parents, I was left alone in S.A until Alisa came back (5 days later). I just visited more family and then on the day Alisa arrived we flew to Durban to start our next leg of our journey....

My week in England

So i left Shailen in Joburg and went to meet up with my family. It had been 6 years since we had been together so I was really looking forward to it.

Arriving into Heathrow airport is crazy. There is such a huge number of planes all the time. We landed then had to sit for ages because there was another plane in our spot. Crazy stuff!
Anyway I arrived on what i would later realise as the rarest weather for London - bright blue sunny skies! I arrived on Friday morning and met up with Cara and Michael. Cara had to work for the day so me and Michael did some sight seeing. We took the tube into the city and had a look around at Big Ben and the London Eye. It was such a beautiful day so we decided to go up the London Eye. In the mean time I am having heart attacks every second at the price of things. I had gotten used to SA which is very cheap so it was a shock to the system. For example to go up the London Eye it cost us 15 pounds which is about $NZ40. If you make the pound it is fine. To anyone else it hurts the bank account.

Michael standing outside the London Eye.

Me on the Eye.

Looking over the Parliament Buildings with the Big Ben.

We also had a look around the streets and went to see Buckingham Palace (a complete disappointment!) and Picadilly circus which was cool. London is exactly how you see it in movies. All the streets are really cute and the houses are like being in Coronation street! LOL

Buckingham Palace.

Anyone feel like they are watching Coronation Street?

Picadilly Circus.

The streets in London Central.

Later that day we went to pick up Mum and Dad from the Airport and, after taking the freeway in the wrong direction for a while after picking up the rental car, we then went to meet Cara's new boyfriend who is really lovely and passed the sister test with flying colours (a bribe of raspberries always help). The next day we got into our rental car and drove off into the country!

Mum and Dad rented a little cottage in a place called Kettle Well, in the Yorkshire Dales. It has a huge population of 270 people and has a total of 2 shops, 2 pubs and a village store. It was perfect. The country side is also exactly what you see on TV with paddocks, stone walls everywhere and tiny country roads.

The family outside our little cottage.

The town we were staying in - Kettlewell.

The cottage was beautiful. Although it was old it was modern inside but all the doorways were so low that we were having competitions as to who hit their heads the most. I think Michael being as tall as he is won that one?

We spent the week there taking treks through the countryside, taking a train trip to Carlisle (where mum's credit card got swallowed and the bank wouldn't give it back!), Had a look around Leeds (which is a very cute city and has great Fudge), did some puzzle races (cara won both times!), watched NZ get kicked out of the World Cup, and just generally being lazy.

Mum and Dad on one of our walks in the countryside.

The whole family together on the train to Carlisle.

The beautiful town of York.

It was really nice just to hang out with everyone and relax. Also it was nice to resort back to being kids. Me and Cara even went to the village store and got 50p of lollies from the jars. It was just like being 7 again. "Can i have 1 of those and 3 of those...." LOL

Michael, Cara and I out on a walk visiting waterfalls.

Me and Cara.

We left the following Saturday morning to head back to London (about a 5 hour drive). The week was suddenly over! I felt pretty sad because I had been looking forward to it for so long. But I think me and Shailen will enjoy living there because it is a really neat city. But THANK YOU Mum and Dad for a great week! :)

Mum and Dad flew out the following morning and then we dropped Michael off at the bus station and then it was just me and Cara. We were pretty lazy for the rest of the day but went out in the evening to watch the England/ France match. The next day we just walked around the shops next to her place and lazed about. I was not too fussed on doing tourist things because I knew me and Shailen could do that when we came.

Then it was off to the Airport for me. This is where everything went a little wrong. We went to catch the tube to the airport and get part way there when we are told that there are problems with the Heathrow line and they suggest another line to take. So we have to wait for this one along with everyone else. It finally came and by this time I am running late. I finally arrive at the airport about 40mins after I am supposed to be there! I get out of the train and run for the terminals. We arrive at Virgin to discover that my flight is not coming up when I try and check myself in. We ask for assistance and when they find out what flight I am on they rush me to the front. I made it to check my bags in 5 minutes before they were closing it. But it doesn't end there. First they kick up a fuss because I don't have a print out of my ticket (I had just written the confirmation no. down) so they manage to print me one of those. ( I am running between counters and people) Then I have a ticket and they go to security check me and find that I don't have proof of a flight out of SA within 3 months. I did have these flights but all on the internet which they would not let me show them. So in the end I had to buy a ticket to the cheapest place (80pounds later) just so I could leave London. When we went to SA before they didn't ask us for anything so I didn't know I needed it. So finally all this is done and I can go through. By this time I am extremely late. Then I got to the security line and it went for miles. I was told that my flight gates would close at 7.55 and I was still standing in this line at 8.00. I finally get through and sprint for my gate. It was still open and I wasn't the last person to come! There were people running all over the place. Honestly that airport is crazy!

But all ended good and I arrived safe and sound in SA. I'm sorry there are no pictures but I will have to put those later. I will let Shailen write what he was doing while I was in London and then we will update you as now we are both in Durban.
Hope everyone is well and looking after themselves.
Take Care
Alisa
xoxo

Arriving South Africa!

Well its been a while since our last post, simply because not every house has the internet let alone a computer in their place.

I (Shailen) have got my Laser Eye Surgery done, and boy was it an experience and a half. It all started on the tuesday that I arrived in South Africa. After travelling for about 20 or 30 hours and minimal sleep, we arrived in South Africa at 0630. My appointment was for the same day at 1030. I had tests done and they put some eyedrops in that dilated my pupils so much that it was almost as big as my iris! I was then approved and at 1230 I went in for the surgery. Now, I was given local anasthetic and so was awake for the whole procedure. I see him as he clamps my eyelids open and places this ring over my iris and then cuts the top layer of the cornea off. He folds the flap back and thats when my vision is all blurry and then I see (and hear) the laser working on my eyes. It was so hard to keep my eyes still as it worked because I just wanted to close my eyes but wasn't allowed to move. In 20 minutes it was all done and I was given some sexy spider-man goggles to put on, which had to stay on the whole day and the next couple of nights. The first night was hell because I was tired, nauseous and irritable due to my itchy eyes. The first 3 days were the worst but on the Friday I had the protective lens removed so it felt heaps better. I could slowly start to see more and more and now they are fine. No glasses or anything and things seem so much clearer!!
We arrived in Joburg on Tuesday and on Thursday Alisa flew out to England to meet up with her family. So I'll let her write and then I will write again after.

First Leg

And we are off!! I think I walked through the airport doors sideways because in the infamous words of Confuscius - spelling? - "Man who walks through airport doors sideways is going to Bangkok!"
Yes we are in Thailand for only 2 hours and it is currently 11pm and the temperature outside is 31 Degrees Celcius!

Must go, need to catch connecting flight to South Africa....