Giraffe Manor aka Heaven

Well, the last two days have officially been a dream come true.

After a very long travel day from Virunga National Park (in Congo) to Nairobi (Kenya) we FINALLY arrived at Giraffe Manor. We were given a quick tour before I was advised I had 30 minutes to make myself presentable before our giraffe photoshoot (not an easy feat after over 11hrs of travelling).

I ran upstairs threw some makeup on and let the magic happen. It was incredible the giraffes came right up to the house, ate out of our hands and even came in for a cheeky kiss. After 2hrs of feeding, playing and posing it was time for the giraffes tongo to bed and for us to have a family style dinner with the other guests in the dining room.

The room (well, the whole house really) felt like it was out of Cluedo - we were expecting Colonel Mustard to murder someone with a candlestick in the dining room.

This morning was just as incredible. We awoke to giraffes at our window and then dined with them downstairs for breakfast. After another few hours of photos and feeding we headed to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust p which is an orphanage for Elephants.

We were lucky enough to see 24 baby elephants  (aged 2 months - 2 yrs) feed and play in the mud. We are now off for a quick city tour before our afternoon flight to Zanzibar.

- K x

Do Not Fly

After meeting our guide Mark at Nairobi airport we flew the 1.5hrs into Kigali, Rwanda. We spent around 1.5 in the Geonocide Museum then headed back to the hotel for an early dinner before an early night.

The next morning we drove 3.5 to the boarder of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (yes, it's officially on Australias do not fly list). We had to walk across the boarder, get our temperatures and vaccination cardschecked and get into another car on the other side.

We drove through Goma (DRC) and learned that it has the worlds largest UN and Unicef presence. Not surprising as the city was improvierished chaos. Basically the presence there is to stop people shooting each other. We had lunch at a oasis restraunt by the lake where we were all shocked when the menu handed to us was in French!

We then drove another 1.5hrs up a mountain with an armed guard sticking his gun out the window (yikes) and found ourselves at a Lodge the middle of Virunga National Park. The surroundings were stunning but once again early to bed before a big day of trekking to see the Gorillas.

We woke early and trekked for 2.5hrs across fields and jungle to find the largest family group of Gorillas in the country. The group in total comprises of 35 but we were lucky enough to see around 18 of them, and when i say see i mean they surrounded us. Babies curious running up and trying to tug on our pants and doing acrobatics in the trees was amazing.

Our second trek today was just as magical,  we were lucky enough to be the first people to see a 2 week old baby gorilla and it's mum. She was so protective but eventually let us see it. We also gota little too well acquainted with a 30yr old Silverback who walked straight up to me and only turned with about 30cm to go. I have never been so terrified in my entire life!

This afternoon we headed to a new (fancier,  with wifi!) Lodge and saw their Gorilla orphanage.

5.30am wake up tomorrow morning before a long day travelling back to Nairobi.

- K x

Masai Mara

We arrived at the shoddiest looking airport in the world, that consisted of essentially metal huts. My hopes were not high and my fear of flying was certainly prominent. Our plane was a 12 seater and I was not impressed. Luckily we landed safe and sound. Our guides Moses and Murufu took us the scenic route to our new home at Salas Camp where we were welcomed by Zebras, Giraffes and lots of Wilderbeast.

Our tent is more like a luxury hotel with its plunge pool, banana lounge and ensuite overlooking the Serengeti. We were told we would be doing two safaris a day, one at dawn and one at dusk. The next few days were a blur of animals. We saw everything from Lion Cubs playing, to Cheetahs hunting (successfully) and lots of Zebra bums! We have had stunning hot days and very wet nights, perfect weather for the animals.

On our final full day we visited a Masai village, the danced for (and with) us and shared stories of their culture and traditions with us. I think Mum also almost tried to adopt one of the gorgeous children who were hanging around us and loved to be picked up and cuddled.

- K x

DubHi

After 2 long months we finally met up with Tom in Dubai. Minimal tears but lots of chatter later we checked into the Park Hyatt to indulge ourselves on the breakfast buffet and al la carte offerings. We made it to the Dubai Mall by 10am (apparently the largest mall in the world) to do some diamond and watch shopping - just kidding although I did see a stunning radiant cut Bulgari solitaire valued at $750,000 (start saving Doug).

We purchased Tom some sunglasses  (hot pink, don't ask) and were on our way back the hotel for our desert tour.
Our desert tour started with an hour drive out of Dubai, saw a falcon show and then spent an hour 4 wheel driving through the sand dunes. After sunset we arrived at a massive site filled with tables and stalls. We took our seats and had some of the yummy Arabian buffet on offer.  Eventually the belly dancing show started and was incredible, the dancer was balancing swords on her head and twirling in front of the crowd. We piled back into the car where I proceeded to sleep the whole way home.

The next morning  (once again after a fantastic breakfast) we went up the top of the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world. We didn't have much time afterwards so raced home and to the airport where Tom managed to eat through the business class lounge. We arrived in Nairobi a few hours later and had a quick dinner and an early night before our morning flight.

- K x

Bright Lights, Big City

With me slightly better and Douggie still deathly ill we awoke on Wednesday morning for shopping... because how else can you possibly make Douggie feel worse. We hit up Macy's on 34th and all of the outlets on 14th. D did find some shoes but no fancy/work ones which was sad - damn size 15 feet! We were home by 4 so Douggie could nap before our 5.30pm dinner booking at Obao, a Thai Fusion restaurant in Hell's Kitchen.

Dinner was great but we finished up a little early so strolled to the theatre and called our grandparents to say Hi and updated them on our travels. We ended up seeing a show that Doug chose called 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' it was a great play but not a musical which is always my preference. Douggie absolutely loved it however for me the highlight was at the end when a golden retriever puppy ran out on stage... honestly, so cute. We then did some late night wondering/shopping in Times Square before heading to bed.

Thursday we decided to conquer the Upper East Side/5th ave and Central Park. After a heated argument about waffles and a quick stop at Macy's we headed to Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park. We had to wait an hour to get on the ice as it had been so warm it was melting and they had to refreeze it! So we shared a hotdog and made some squirrel friends in Central Park. 

Douggie Ice Skating was the least graceful thing imaginable, think Bambi on Ice. After he thought he got the hang of it he decided holding hand would be romantic and then almost pulled me down with him as he fell! For his punishment I decided Saks off 5th (the Saks discount store) would be perfect.

Anyone who goes to NY HAS to go to Saks off 5th. We're talking $400 Manolo Blahnik shoes and $1,000 Givenchy Bags. Unfortunely I couldn't justify a pair of $350 Patent Navy Strappy Jimmy Choos but did come away with a cute pair of Micheal Kors booties and some suede Halston black heels. We then ran home got ready for the basketball at Madison Sq Gardens.

The Brussels attack had happened earlier that day so security was crazy at MSG and took us around 45mins to get in. We saw the NY Knicks vs Chicago Bulls and it was a great game (not that I know anything about Basketball... I had a giant Pretzel, I was happy). I think Doug may end up running off with one of the Knicks City Dancers though! We decided against going up the Empire State Building as it was a bit foggy and ended up walking along 9th to look for dinner. We stumbled accross a great Thai Fusion place called Room Service. It had amazing decor and was inexpensive. I was extremely happy with my Wasabi Salmon Tartare and Chicken and Cashews and Douggies classic Massaman Curry and Chicken Satay, I also had a few VERY tasty Mango Mojito's!

Friday was our last day and after hitting up Macy's and Polo together Douggie and I decided to do a early fancy lunch uptown. We chose Tao as it looked very cool (google it, massive gold Buddha in the middle of the restaurant) and had an amazing express lunch of Japanese Fusion (yes, we love Asian fusion... it's a problem). To start I had Basil Chicken San Choy bao then a Sushimi Platter and finally the Chocolate Zen Parfait which was more like a Chocolate Tiramisu.

Doug and I then split up to do our own shopping as he wanted to concentrate on Shoes and I wanted to concentrate on... me. I wandered around the shop on 5th Ave and picked up some stuff for Mum before racing home to Doug to figure out our dinner plans.

As it was Good Friday and we stupidly hadn't pre-booked anywhere we only managed to get a table at 10.30 in the Meat Packing District. We headed uptown in an effort to get dessert before dinner at Serendipity 3 but they had a 45 minute wait! So we just headed over to Spice Market for a few drinks before dinner. Once again we had Thai Fusion food (okay, I know... enough already) we shared Thai Fried Chicken and Spring Rolls. I then had the Raw Platter comprising of Salmon Tartare, Crispy Hamachi Sushi Oysters, Soy Cured Salmon & Lobster Rolls... I think it was meant for 2 but believe me I managed.

We then skipped dessert and headed straight for the Empire State Building and luckily it was a perfectly clear night. Unluckily for me though we had to stop and read EVERY SINGLE SIGN about how it was built, thanks Doug. As it was 12.30 it was pretty quiet up there but the city was still glowing. We stayed up there for around an hour then headed home to pack and prepare for our 32hr journey home.

We woke up at 7.30 and after a quick final pack I rushed across the street solo for my last waffle fix which was amazing. We then caught the Bus to Newark and jetted to LAX.

We are now in LAX a little sleep deprived (and me once again starving for Fried Chicken - I have a problem). Our flight is in 6hrs and in 22hrs we will be home.

Amazing trip and I didn't kill Doug which is always a win!

Until next holiday.

- K x

Montego Bay to Manhattan

You can just call me the Karaoke Champion (Khampion? I do love alliterations). After a perfect fresh lobster dinner we headed over to the bar for Karaoke night. I attempted Adele's Someone like you (forgot about those high notes - whoops) and Diva'd it up to I will survive resulting in a mini Dancefloor and standing ovation. Couldn't get Doug on the mic, which was unfortunate for me (could have made a great embarrassing video) but probably for the best as his vocal styling leave something to be desired.

Someone may have slept in Saturday morning and almost missed their Dive... but he did end up getting on the boat.It was a Double dive session which gave me a blissful 3.5hrs of Beach and Book time. D got back at 1pm, just in time for our last Jerk Chicken lunch :( We then mucked around in the pool for the afternoon before our final dinner at the fancy restaurant.

Our flight was at 1pm on Sunday but as we were 1.5hrs away from the airport we had to leave around 9.30am. We got up and had breakfast before heading to the beach to take a few final photos. Then off to Manhattan we went.

After 4hrs we landed at JFK and Douggie decided catching 2 subways was the quickest/easiest solution... Hmm not really. It was very difficult for us to buy Subway passes as there was no attendants and the machines wouldn't accept our Credit Card (kept asking for a zipcode and my trust 90210 wasn't working!!). We eventually made it to the city, dumped our bags at our midtown hotel and headed down to NoHo for Dinner at Saxon and Parole (Mum and Brians suggestion). We shared some calamari and had the most amazing burgers ever, definitely has a place in the top 3 burgers of my life. As it was 11pm and we'd been flying all day we headed home to our hotel via Times Square to unpack, rewind and ... become obsessed with a show on the discovery channel (honestly, Naked and Afraid is amazing).

Monday morning we both woke up a little under the weather but headed out in the 4 degree temps to do a bike riding tour. The tour was a 2hr Private Tour of Brooklyn/Willamsburg where we saw lots of art (and even got to do our own graffiti), ate lots of food (Doug willingly ate, and enjoyed, a vegan choc chip cookie) and explored the area. Then as we were a little under the weather we went home for a nap before the Ice Hockey.

We saw the Ice Hockey at the new Barclay's Centre in Brooklyn. We got great seats for around $40US as the stadium is quite small. It was great but unfortunetly no fist fights (my favorite part of the Ice Hockey). However they do have Tshirt Cannons and Doug caught a NY Islanders Tshirt!

Tuesday morning we both woke up very unwell, although somehow Douggie much worse than me. We called our Travel Insurer to see what doctors they recommended/what the procedure was and they advised us that there are basically no GPs in NY and we'd have to go the hospital. Well, let me tell you - if Doug is willing to go to a doctor, he is definitely sick enough to go to a hospital (last time he had glandular fever and ignored it for 6 weeks).

We headed over to Bellevue Hospital and walked into the ER, it was packed! Luckily after we waited 30mins just to be registered to see a Dr we were advised that as we are under 25 we are considered Pediatrics - winner as we were seen within the hour by a doctor and tested.

$2,500 later (thank god for insurance) we were told it was likely the Flu and nothing could really be done so we were prescribed fancy Panadol and sent home for bed rest... via pancakes... because pancakes and ice cream always make me feel better. We spent the rest of the day napping and ordered Chinese food in for dinner (Douggie's version of pancakes.... Chinese always makes him feel better). Think we will have an early night tonight to hopefully fix us up for more NYC Exploring!

- K x

Jamaican me Punny

Love my puns.

Okay I left you on a cliff hanger but yes, Douggie did win the ping pong comp...thank god.

After his 15 victory laps we went to the fancy restraunt for dinner where we I had crab cakes, mushroom ravioli and lamb - was super tasty.

Tuesday Morning Douggie got up early for his dive and I just bummed around the pool until he came back. Once he was back we spent the afternoon on the beach and beating every staff member at Ping Ping! We went to Lychee,  the asian restraunt, for dinner. Sushi and teriyaki steak were great and we had a yummo chocolate rice pudding for dessert.

On Wednesday morning I conquered my fears and signed up for the 8am Introductory Dive Class. 2hrs of theory and pool practice later and we set out on a dive boat. We were only able to go 12mtrs deep but believe me that was enough. I had a few ear problems so it took me quite a while to get down that far but once I did I loved it. I was only down there for around 20mins but saw some beautiful coral and a few Lionfish (Dougs new fave fish). After that I was exhausted so just bummed around on the beach. We went to the fancy restaurant again for dinner however sat on the communal table. The roof over the table is domed which creates an echo effect which was kind of cool. Given I'd seen one earlier I had the lion fish for dinner.

After dinner was casino night, which we played for funny money (later used to bid on items in an auction). Turns out I'm whizz at Crapps. I won a fair amount of money ($400 million to be exact) and still have no idea how to play. Doug lost all his money on black jack. Later was the auction, some very shit items bht we managed to win ourselves an "official" Jamaican Olympic Tshirt.

Thursday was horse riding day.  We were picked up at 9.30 and rode in the bush for an hr before taking the ponies for a swim! We didn't get back to the hotel until 2 which is when it started raining. We had a quick lunch and a nap and were out by 6 for pre dinner drinks. Well.... someone hit the drinks a little hard. Doug managed to drag me to dinner at lychee but afterwards we ended up doing shots.  As Doug could see I was getting a little too excited and the"club night " didn't start until 10 be took me to the room to watch tv and sober up.... hoping I would fall asleep. It didn't work as intended and we were ripping up the dance floor in no time.

This morning i woke up a little worse for wear but was dragged to Sailing with Doug. It did make me feel better if I'm being honest.  We then grabbed lounges and floated in the ocean for a few hrs until I decided I wanted to try waterskiing...for the first time in 10 years. I got up straight away but only lasted maybe 10 minutes out there. It's exhausting! I'm trying to convince Doug to give it a try tomorrow.
We just had our complimentary photography session which someone grumbled all through.  Off to dinner soon for Lobster night yum yum then Kareoke later on!

We leave on Sunday so only 1 full day left :(

-K x

3 Days Later

Doug is currently napping so I'll give you a quick summary of the last 3 days!

Flight into LA was actually pretty good - not qantas level of service but nice enough. The plane itself was the new dreamliner which was great.

The plan was to sleep from 12am LA time through to when we landed at 7am. I'm not usually a good plane sleeper so I stared at Doug and plotted his death for a good 3hrs and managed to sleep for 4.

Customs was surprisingly quick considering what you'd expect, Douggie hadn't been through USA on his new passport so we had to go through the old system but we were still out of the airport with our bags in around 40 mins.

As soon as we stepped out of the door the hertz shuttle bus pulled up so away we went to get our car for the day.

They gave us a 2016 huyundai which was actually a nice car.

The theme park was roughly 40miles out of town and most of the driving was done on a freeway so not too difficult from a wrong side of the road perspective although my navigational skills leave something to be desired...

The park didn't open until 10.30 so given how quickly we cleared customs etc we had about an hour to suss out some breakky

The park is in the middle of nowhere so we could find was a dennys - not ideal. With only crap fast food around we walked in...at 9.20 am we were told that there was a 25 minute wait for a table,  the place was brimming all throwing back the worst looking food you could imagine.

We decided against waiting for crappy food and "upgraded" to the wendys across the road, our only other option. It did the trick cheap ish chicken burgers all set for the park.

When we arrived it looked just like wallys world from the lampoons HUGE car park funneling into an entrance.  Only difference being the huge crowd.
To combat this Doug and I bought a line skipper - which cost an aditional $70 he but it seriously made the day. The average queue was 60mins  we waited on average about 4 or 5 mins.

The park was just roller coasters.  The branding is loosely Warner Brothers but it was just a collection of 15 huge coasters some with 350ft drops! I went on all but 2 (being strapped in horizontally on a rollercoster is not my idea of fun) but was feeling very fragile and nauseas by the end of it!!

Drive home was going well until the phone died on us 20 mins from the rental place.

I remembered the exit kind of, but we needed to refuel the car and finding a servo  and then getting back to a hire car lot in LA blind proved to be eventful especially on the wrong side of the road. Made a mess of it and drove around LA for 20mins looking for hertz until we ended up tailgating one of their shuttle busses.

Given we arrived so early at the worst terminal at LAX we purchased some 24hr American Airlines lounge passes.

Was amazing lots of food/drink & quiet spots. A few hrs sleep and a potential Rob Kardashian sighting later we flew out to Miami. (UPDATE: Google has confirmed that Rob Kardashian and his Girlfriend were at LAX on the 12th flying out to Miami, yay. 1 Kardashian down, 50 to go)

Only a short 4 hr flight (of which we slept most of it) then a 4 hr layover in Miami. Because we bought the 24hr passes we went into the lounge again for breakfast (it was 8am) and... A SHOWER. I cannot tell you how amazing that shower was.

We then flew 1.5hrs and finally landed in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We got through customs quickly and were greated by the resort with a bus. Lucky as the resort is actually an hr away. After our resort tour, unpacking (my favourite part of a holiday!) and a nice long shower we headed to dinner.

I was asleep by 8.45 and didn't wake up until 10am!! Woke up alone as of course D had been exploring.

This morning we went Hobie Cat sailing and swimming in the amazing, clear, azure blue ocean then had the Jamaican speciality of Jerk Chicken for lunch - super tasty. We went and booked dinner at the fancy restraunt then Douggie needed a nap before the uber competitive ping pong tournament tonight.

He's just woken up and is in the competitive spirit. God I hope he wins if not he will sulk all through dinner!!

- K x