Karl B

[Note: I went on this holiday ages ago (in cases, years), and I'm getting around to posting about them]

Dahab. Is. Awesome.

I think this is the part of the trip that everyone enjoyed the most. Everything was so relaxed, there was far less hassle in the market, twas awesome.

A day in the life of:

We would get up a varying hours depending what we were doing that day, I was usually up fairly early to go diving. Laura and Tanai were up some what later as they were just relaxing by the pool/going for a walk people. The three guys and girls varied depending on how many dives they were doing that day.

By the evening we were all knackered from our activities, so we’d meet at 7pm and go to one of the dozens of red-sea-side restaurants. They all served very nice and relatively cheap meals. After that the guys would sometimes go out, but I was always too tired from doing three dives a day or reading my PADI manuals.

Mt Sinai

Some may consider it crazy but we did it anyway. A two hour drive to the Mt arriving at 1am (yes am, one hour after midnight) then a 2.5 hour walk up the top to sleep on the edge of a cliff for a couple of hours before the sun came up. Was it worth it? Definitely! The sun rise was awesome in how it lit up the surrounding mountain side and then on the way down (the stairs, we went up the path) the views in the light of day were very photo worthy.

I would definitely go up again as I enjoyed the walk and the rewarding view. The people I went up with agree that is was worth it but said they would never do it again. I suppose I should mention that I was a right prat dashing up and leaving the guide/group behind, only to be yelled at from far down the Mt to stop and wait. I can’t believe how unfit they were especially how good they looked. Okay let me qualify that. Hayley, Steph and Paula are all relatively thin and athletic looking women; Ian is taller and thinner than me and definitely seems sportier. Laura and Tanai…I wont go there.

Want to go to Spain for a couple of days, on work? Sure!

That’s pretty much what happened to me this week. On Tuesday morn’ I started hearing the management talk about it, apparently there were some network problems in the Madrid and Barcelona offices. By the afternoon I had been told the situation and that I would be going either late that night or early the next.

What happened next was nothing short of tragic…okay. Not quite. A fter a mad dash to get over priced tickets. A pickup at 3:30am Wedmesday morning, and arrived back at 1:30am Friday.

What did I achieve? Found out I couldn’t do anything in the work offices because the ISPs equipment sucked, so what did I do? Managed to spend a few hours walking around Barcelona, discovering how awesome it is (I have to go back) and oh, I saw the Sagrada Familia.

Since I’ve become employed here, and perhaps more so since I was offered a full time contract (starts late April and lasts until the end of my working visa), I have fallen back into the worker ant mentality. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Because of this a friend last night gave me a challenge, a mission of sorts, to post photos of myself at Stonehenge within two weeks.

I have accepted, but thought I’d make it a series and start out with something more interesting.  April 1st, the day before the G20 summit starts there will be a protest infront of the bank of England. As it so happens, I work within 300m of said bank, so tomorrow I plan to come to work (we’ve been told use an alternative site)  in a suit (we’ve been told to dress down), carrying a camera and snapping photos in the midst of the crowd.

If you have any ideas for things to do in my spare time leave a comment, I still plan on going to StoneHenge as well.

To Mum: I hope I speak with you tomorrow evening before you read my blog, if not, sorry!

Egypt…was interesting. An observation I’d like to make now that I’m back is that not enough of my photos had people in them. I don’t think I got any of the entire group, only fragments, and there are certainly not many of me. NB: I tried to fix this in Italy but I kinda failed. I guess I just hate people.

Right, so that was off topic. As I mentioned in the last episode of “This is Karl’s neglected brain” (Note, that blog entry is not published as I plead the 5th) I organised a very last minute tour of Egypt, and by last minute I mean the day before I flew out which included booking flights for the next day…. What I found out when I got there was that I had no idea whether my travel insurance covered the middle east, luckily Oasis Overland just wanted the policy number and luckily again I didn’t have any accidents while over there.

Deviating from topic again, highlights as I can remember them.

• Three star rating for a hotel in Egypt doesn’t mean a lot.
• Never be without toilet paper and where possible do not use public toilets.
• I saw a lot of temples (click the links!)
• Really long train rides from Cairo to Aswan which should take 11 hours, but actually take 19, suck.
• There are a lot of hot foreign (eastern bloc) chicks at Egyptian temples, go figure.
• We spent two days and two nights on a felucca, in ways it felt too long but then again it was just right.

The felucca was an interesting experience, all 11 of us were on the boat together, sleeping on the boat, drinking on the boat etc (well, apart from the lovely toilet breaks which involved digging a hole in the sand). In the evenings we stopped at a beach area along with other groups (different tour companies, same idea) and had a big bonfire, got drunk and all that.

Saw some more temples.

An urgent announcement to interupt you from our usual schedule of catching up with past holidays, a live update!

This morning, the morning before I left for Rome*,  the morning I was supposed to spend packing, my laptop arrived.

Let me be the first to say WOOT, no more having to use other people’s PCs which have viruses on them.

Well I some how managed to split packing with starting to setup my laptop but it may have something to do with how badly I packed, in that I ended up with almost everything but the kitchen sink.

Now for some history:

Dell sucks. Okay that’s not exactly history but let me explain. The process I went through to obtain this fairly sexy laptop is as follows:

September 22ish (Update dates later): Ordered a laptop online from Dell’s website.
September 23rd: Received a call about the company name I had entered. When I ordered the laptop online, I’m presuming since I chose a Vista Business as my OS, there was a company name field in the personal details section and it was manditory so I entered “Not a Company”. They called to confirm that my company name really was “Not a Company” and I had to explain to them…anyway.
September 25th: Was called by Dell advising that since the billing address on my credit card was different to the delivery address and they were cancelling my order. I of course explained the situation but they were like screw you and, oh, btw here is another customer service number you can call about it.
September sometime: I called the provided customer service number about it and after a few back and forth calls they said, you have to change the billing address on you credit card to buy from us.

So I call Lloyds TSB offshore and ask to change my billing address, I got told that the person who can do that had left for the day and to call back tomorrow. I called ‘tomorrow’ and was told it can’t be done over the phone, so I had to go into the bank and fill out a form. Rather I had to print the form, go into the bank with the form filled out, plus my passport and change the address. Cool, I get that all done.

Now, back to Dell. I advised Monica B, the Dell Rep, that I had changed my billing address and that I wanted her to put though my order (By this stage I was on holiday in Egypt (blog posts of that will come at some time), she emailed back that she needed to speak to me on the phone, I emailed back that my cellphone was flat and if she REALLY needed to speak to me then I could call her from a hotel in Egypt, she emailed back ‘I’ll check’.

Some time goes by while I’m in Egypt and I’m starting to get rather pissed so I email Monica, her supervisor and Dell customer service about the issue. I got nothing from Monica and her supervisor, and customer service tells me I’ll need to forget about the original order and put through a new one.

Once I got back from Egypt I put through another order using my offshore lloyds card, 12 hours later I get an email from them saying payment didn’t go through and that they’d try in 24 hours. I phoned up Lloyds and they said that there had  been no errors, I check the balance and crap, not enough in that account, so I transfer money over. Guess what happens 24 hours later? Order cancelled, could not make payment.

By this stage I had created a local Lloyds account because there was no reason to have an offshore one, and due to a Lloyds quirk it is easier to set up internet banking with a local account, so I tried ordering the laptop AGAIN with my new credit card…

Sigh, you know it’s coming. I got a call from Dell saying there was a problem with my credit card billing address. I know this is utter bollocks because I set up the account a few days prior and everything is kosher. The Dell rep didn’t believe I lived there and started asking for the names of people living there saying something about matching them with a list he had, after giving him the names of basically everying living there present, and a few past, he said none matched and I needed to find out the land lords name and he’d call me back.

Later that evening he called me back and asked for the landlords name, I proceeded to become a very agitated customer saying:
- I was dossing there and didn’t know.
- That I had been trying to order a laptop for over 6 weeks
- Asking if there was a store in London where I could go  and was there and hand my passport and credit card over to prove it was me – He checked, there wasn’t.

I started ranting at him saying was there some way I could pay by direct debit or something because I wanted to buy the damn laptop and had been trying to for over 6 weeks and did they not want me as a customer.

At this point he interupted my rant and said he’d go check with his manager, when he got back he said ‘Thank you for waiting Mr X, we will process your credit card payment and get your laptop out to you.

*By Rome I ment, my flight got diverted to Napels because of bad weather and I am currently on a bus heading to Rome and it’s raining on the windows, quite relaxing actually, I might get some sleep.

Day two in Munich:

I had set my alarm for 6:30am but I was too cold to get up so I went back to sleep…till I got a text from Kylie at 7:30 saying they were on the shuttle. After scoffing down some breakfast (mmm, baked beans and scrambled eggs)  I jumped on the shuttle to Oktoberfest and the beer halls. I had to walk for a good 10-15 minutes to find the Hofen Brau tent which is predominantly populated by Aussies and Kiwis. Once I had found the tent I had to wait at least an hour and try multiple entrances to get in, luckily the others had saved me a seat.

The first keg of Oktoberfest is not tapped until noon so we waited 2-3 hours in there talking to some randoms, among other, three girls Mel, Lyndia and Jess and a guy called Karl.

Between noon and three the tent raved, as the keg got tapped people went off and then again as people drunk more and more the volume went up.

The seats we were sitting at were reserved for 3:00pm so at about 10 past the security pretty much bodily removed us, not allowing us to even move to other friends tables or the pig pen.

NB: The HofenBrau tent is somewhat notorious. In all tents you have to be seated to be served beer, in the HB tent and ONLY the HB tent there is an exception, a standing area in the centre which you will still be served beer in. The catch is that people who go in there will have their underwear ripped off (by the people already in the centre), boxers/jocks for guys and bras for girls, and all the underwear gets thrown up onto a pig thing suspended from the ceiling.

The rest of the day pretty much went by in a blur as I was pretty blotted by the time we got kicked out, I fell asleep on a hill outside the tent for 45 minutes before finding some food and walking back to the PP shuttle pick up point.

After getting back to the camp by taxi (as the shuttle bus didn’t turn up for over the hour) with Kat and Kathryn, two chicks from Sydney, and the others we drunk a little then went to bed.

So I’m on the coach on my way back to London from Munich. From the beer, the cold and the awesome party environment.

Looking back I can definitely say I enjoyed it. The atmosphere in the HB (Hofenbrau) tent was amazing and just getting out there and talking to random people was fun. I only wish I had gone on the 7 or 9 day version as with the travel included 5 days just was NOT enough time…and I found this really great chick to talk to…

The detailed version.

We departed from the Embankment at ~1:00pm on Thursday (18th Sept), from there we drove to the port of Dover and got on the ferry to Calais. Once on the other side of the channel our coach leader busted out the alcohol and the whole coach proceeded to get drunk.

I’ve said in my previous rantings that I was not prepared for flights of 8-10 hours in length, as I was not prepared for those I was definitely not ready for a mammoth 18 hour bus ride, everyone arrived at the other end tired and smelly.

The day we arrived a group of us caught the U-Bahn to Marienplatz which is the centre of town and from there Gareth, Chantel, Kylie and myself took a bicycle tour around the city called “Lenny’s free bicycle tour”. On initially hearing that it would be 4 hours we were a bit iffy but it really was worth it (and I’d recommend it to everyone).

Lenny took us on a very leasurely paced ride around central Munich and told us a little of its past. There was the founding and various wars fought then he got onto the more recent history of WWI/WWII and Adolph. After that we cycled through a very large park (part of which was nudist) and stopped at a beer garden for some beer, food and more history before stopping at a surf wave in the middle of the city. At the end I tipped Lenny 12 euro which is half the price of “Mikes Bike Tour”. As a side note there were a LOT of bike tours all going to exactly the same place.

City surf

The first night I pretty much froze in my tent. I had a self inflating mattress, sleeping bag, jeans, shirt, thin woolen jersy and I was still cold. In the middle of the night I tied a long sleeve shirt around my head to keep my body insulated and that seemed to work to some extent to keep me warm. And so ended day one in Munich.

I found the Heathrow airport far less intimidating that the Dubai one, it was all good and easy.

That said…The customs line at heathrow was insanely long, at a guess I’d say it must have taken 20+ minutes to get through it, there was also an annoying message playing advising that due to new tighter security policies the lines/waits would be longer, which just really made waiting there even more annoying.

After I got my baggage I headed down to the underground, picked up an Oystercard and put £20 on it. Then walked a few miles down to the Piccadilly line platform. I have to say getting on at Heathrow was a nice place to start the tube experience as it was pretty much empty and gave me time to look at the diagram for the line. The whole being empty thing didn’t last long, as it was rush hour (8am) more and more and more people got on I began to feel like a right prat because my suitcase took up to much space.

Following the instructions Chantel gave me I got off at Holborn (I didn’t think I was going to be able to for awhile as the train was so packed, luckily lots of other people got off there), followed the wall markers to the central line (east bound) and got onto the second which came past as the first was too full. From there getting off at Bethnal Green Station and walking to Jade and Chantel’s place was easy.

So the things I learnt about the tube that day:

• If it all possible, never take a suitcase onto the trains.
• Etiquette: People seemed quite curtious in terms of making space and letting people sit, which made me feel like even more of a prat.
• There are LOTs of attractive people on the trains. NB: There are lots of attractive people everywhere, NZ talent is lacking.
• People get very good at holding and reading a newspaper while standing.
• The tube is easy and I will have no problems getting around as long as I know my destination station. NB: If people can’t use the tubes after being on it once, they’re utter muppets, if you know your N, E, S,W you can navigate the tubes.

I don’t really have a whole lot to say about Dubai. It was 34 degrees celsius when  I arrived at midnight and 41+ during the day. I didn’t really do much because it was far too hot.

In the end I just ended up staying in the hotel for most of the day reading a book, watching TV or using the gym. I did go out for one touristy thing I had booked, driving over the sand dunes about an hour out of Dubai in land cruisers which was all good.

More Sand

Sand Dunes + Cars

I finally have time to sit down at a laptop (I still don’t have one unfortunately) and write out all my travel memoirs, I’ll make a post for each location. As a note, I am just transcribing what I wrote at the time.

So there are two things I can say I forgot to bring with me (on the first leg out of New Zealand), a book and sleeping pills.

In my attempt to sync up my body clock with Brunei time I stayed awake till 3:15am NZT, when I flew out, then tried to go to sleep so I would be rested when I arrived in Brunei at 9:30am (10 hours later). What I didn’t take into account is that is is almost impossible to get unbroken good sleep on a plane, hence me saying I forgot the sleeping pills.

The book would have been an alternative to sleeping pills. Being awake with nothing to do, which I did on the plane and what I am doing now in the transit lounge, is painful, though I did talk to three girls who have just been touring Europe and just arrived from Dubai.

The airport offers a tour of Brunei for people who have a 5+ hour stopover, it was a good way to use up some time (and act like a tourist) though it sounded like propaganda with at least 10% of the words coming out of the guides mouth being “the sultan”.

I had expected Brunei airport to be somewhat more impressive but now that I’ve heard that the country only had ~350,000 people I guess I can forgive it.

Anyway I’m starting to feel dizzy which can’t be a good sign so I’m going to kip out out on the surprisingly comfortable airport chairs.

NB1: After writing that I saw Dominic, and I had a picture taken to prove it.

Dom and Karl in the Brunei airport

NB2: As of transposing this the Brunei chairs were the most comfortable ones I’ve slept on so far, they actually had fabric and cushions instead of being hard metal.

Edit 04/12/2008: I can now say I have slept in a fair few airports and I still stand by my original statement about the Brunei airport chairs.