FLIP & FLOP'S ADVENTURE: Flip & Flop for a reason…. THE END !!!!

So here we are, back in sunny (NOT..it is pooring down with rain) England/London!...
Let’s make a tiny comparison of before and after…

Nous voila de retour au soleil Londonien … voici une petite comparaison de notre depart avant et notre arrivee après.

Before

After

At the airport

We also realised that our so called adventure names, Flip& Flop had been very well chosen and attributed to the right travellers! Let’s see what I mean by this..

THE FLIP & FLOP LIST

FLIPs that happened during our trips

- Sophie FLIPPED during take-off from Heathrow airport as the plane was very shaky because of turbulences!

- Sophie arriving in the ghastly bedroom that Nat had booked in Hong Kong FLIPPED because she had left all behind to travel and THIS is what she was getting, a grubby room that cost a bomb, located in the real local Hong Kong

- In New Zealand, Sophie FLIPPED because the older/ half drunk/weird couple camping next to us seemed somewhat dodgy, so she spent her night imagining different ways in which we could have escaped which was going to be hard given the van was plugged in!

- When in Harlem, NY, Sophie FLIPPED when we had 30 policemen and a helicopter during night time searching for a criminal with torches galore!

I've probably forgotten quite a few but you get the gist!

Il faut croire que nous avions bien choisi nos noms lors du voyage flip et flop… voice quelques exemples flagrants !

Les flips pendant le voyage:

- Morte de trouille lors du decolage de notre premier avion vers Hong-Kong… Il faut dire que ce fut un decolage quelque peu turbulent…

- Sophie arrive dans un hotel tout delabre, dans un quartier tres local perdu au fin fond de Hong-Kong

- En Australie, Sophie a reserve une chamber a Torquay en SAngleterre a la place de de l’Australie… heureusement qu’on s’en est rendu compte a temps !!!

- En Nouvelle-Zelande, Sophie a eu peur d’un couple plus que trop imbhibe d’alcool qui campait proche de notre caravane… du coup, elle a passé la nuit a faire des strategies pour demarrer le van alors qu’il etait branche a la prise de courant.

- A Harlem (New York), Sophie a eu super peur, lors d’un raid d’une trentaine de policiers dans notre rue en pleine nuit qui etait vraisemblablement a la recherche de quelqu’un. Meme un helicopter a survole notre rue pendant une demie heure !!

FLOPs that happened during our trips

- Day 1, Nat FLOPPED on accommodation in the Hong Kong, booking YMCA (CRAP) instead of YWCA (GREAT)

- On the East coast of Australia, Nathalie booked a campsite 500kms from where we were supposed to stay that evening, we had to cancel that one and re-booked where we were! FLOP!

- Nathalie, generally was a VERY bad GPS Manager! One example/ FLOP amongst many others is as per below. We aim to get from A to B… which way does Nat take us? …See picture!

- Nathalie’s worst enemy became the parking meters! She ended up putting $16 dollars in the meter which gave us 2 hours whereas $18 dollars would have covered the entire day!.. she therefore had to prove herself and go and sell the original (and wrong) ticket to random French people who were just parking in the same lot! FLOP.. but recovered!

- Nat went to change some ‘Thai Bahts’ into Balinese currency. Having asked how much she would get for the money she was offering, it seemed like a decent amount, so she went for it!... happy, she goes to recount her ‘win’ to Soph who says.. let’s check the rate on internet.. hmmm yup.. so Sophie then says ‘yep well the rate is this and you should have at least have had 30% more than what you have now! Darn! So just like the ‘Parking meter episode’, I went to ‘Complain’ on the exchange rate that was given to me and finally got my way and was given extra money! Phewwww!

- Sophie and her lovely French accent created a few FLOPS like:

o Whilst on Fraser Island, making up the beds in the 4 people dorm, Sophie kindly asks:

(Sophie)…Can I take a shit in the middle of the room?

(Nat & Other occupants of the dorm) Crying of laughter… do you mean can I take a ‘SHEET’ in the middle of the room!!!

o Whilst driving….

(Sophie Talking)…Oh Nat, we need to turn left here on ‘Ocean Doctor’

(Nat)..hmmmm ‘Ocean WHAT?’

(Sophie) Well ‘Ocean Dr!!!, yes Ocean Doctor’

(Nat) HAHA… oh you mean ‘Ocean Driveeeee!!!’….

Les Flops pendant le voyage

- Jour 1, Nat a bien flope ! La seule reservation faite et elle s’est trompee d’hotel … Au lieu de reserver le YMCA qui est sur le front de mer dans un quartier touristique, nous nous sommes retrouvees au YMCA au fin fond de Hong Kong, pas un trouriste !

- Sur la cote Est de l’Australie, Nat a reserve un camping a plus de 500 km de notre destination…. On a du annuler et trouver un camping plus proche…

- Nathalie n’a en general pas le meilleur sens de l’orientation et l’utilisation du GPS ne semblait pas aider… Pour aller de A. a B, Nat nous fait passer par C et D pour etre sure de prendre le chemin le plus long !!

- Les horodateurs … Nathalie nous a fait une belle frasque a Wellington… Payer $16 pour 2heures de stationnement alors que $18 couvrait le stationnement pour toute la journee !!! Heureusement, Nat est tres sociable et s’est debrouiller a revendre a des touristes francais qui cherchaient a se garer.

- Nat est parti pour changer un peu de monnaie thailandaise pour de la monnaie Balinese… Elle a fait confiance au petit magasin au coin qui l’a forcement arnaque puisqu elle avait aucune idee du change… Sophie a donc verifier sur internet pour se render compte qu’elle aurait du recevoir plus de 30% de ce qu’elle avait recu… Nat est retourne au magasin et s’est fait rembourser une partie des sous !!! Qui ne tente rien n’a rien !!!

- Sophie et son joli accent Francais nous a valu quelques fous rire:

A la place de demander un drap, Sophie a demande si elle pouvait faire caca au milieu de la chamber.. bien sur les anglais presents se sont efrondes de rire ! (Can I take a Shit au lieu de can I take a sheet)

- Certaines rues se terminaient par DR comme Ocean Dr… Sophie croyait que ca voulait dire Docteur… alors qu’en faire c’est drive !!!

Thank yous / Mercis

To all of our friends who have welcomed us in their homes:

A tous nos amis qui nous ont accueillis chez eux:

Rob & Dion – Singapore

Anya - Bali

Christina – Sydney

Jojo & Hugh - Sydney

Alex & Nadja – Melbourne

Sarah & Amy – Melbourne

Alex & Archie – Melbourne

Amanda’s parents – Christchurch, New Zealand

Pam & Ron - Tauranga, New Zealand

Amanda, Matt & now Louis – Auckland, New Zealand

Walter – Santa Monica

Maryline & Ian – New York

And thank you to all of you who have followed us via our blog/ Facebook.

Tips/ lessons to take away from our trip / bon a savoir

- If ever you find that your 16G SD card suddenly does not work because for some unknown reason it refuses to now write on the card, check the little switch on the side of the card, I promise, there IS one!. Well just switch it and it’s work! DAHHH!

- Si jamais votre carte SD ne fonctionne plus… il suffit juste de pousser le petit bouton sur la carte…

- Using review/ search engines such as ‘Tripadvisor’ or ‘Yelp’ in the USA were really useful in order to see the rating of attractions, but especially accommodation!

- Tripadvisor a ete notre meilleur ami lors de notre voyage. Si les gens sont contents en majorite, il y a peu de risqué de tomber sur un taudis

- Always ask for a ‘meter taxi’ if travelling in Thailand!

- Toujours demander pour un taxi au metre en Thailande sinon attention aux arnaques !

- If a natural catastrophe ( i.e. typhoon, hurricane, storm etc) is scheduled to happen on the same day as you are taking the plane, don’t surmise your flight will be cancelled… chances are it won’t!

- Si une catastrophe naturelle s’annonce… ne pensait pas que votre avion sera annule d’office… c’est pas toujours le cas !

- Using AirBnB was absolutely great and I would recommend this to anyone!

o You get to stay with and make the most of the local’s knowledge, hence experiencing an authentic stay!

o Rates do not increase the closer you get to the booking date as hotels’ rates do!, it’s just the cheapest and best get taken first

o Make friends

o Get to stay in amazing places!

o You feel independent !

- Utiliser AirBnB s’est genial pour multiples raisons:

o Sejourner chez des locaux

o Les prix n’augmentent pas pour les reservations de dernieres minutes

o Se faire des amis

o Rester dans de superbes maisons

o Etre independent

- If travelling in USA and wanting to rent a car at one same place (i.e. LA for a week), go to www.relayrides.com ! It will mean that you need to register and provide your criminal record, but that is done very easily by internet! On the plus side, you get fun, funky cars for cheaper and again you touch base with a local! i.e. some drop offs, pick ups at the airport are possible!

- Si vous voyagez aus Etats-Unis et que vous avez besoin de louer une voiture, Relayrides est un super concept, comme AirBnB vous pouvez louer la voiture d’un particulier pour nue somme modique en comparaison avec les loueurs de voiture. En plus le choix des voitures est super !

- If doing the traverse from NZ South to North Island (or visa versa), take the plane! Have spoken to many people, we were not the only ones to have suffered through the ‘vomiting carnage!’

- Si vous traversez entre les deux iles en Nouvelle-Zelande, vaut mieux prendre l’avion… le ferry est horrible, tous les passagers maladies de mer !!!

- N’investissez pas dans une carte sim qui couvre le monde, bien plus facile et economique d’acheter une carte sim dans chaque pays.

- Do not invest in a World sim card! Just buy a simple and often free sim card in the country you are visiting and make the most of the local rates. Beware!! Rates at the airport can be so much more expensive than the ones you would get in a normal branch, so do some research!

- If booking an ‘around the world ticket’, I would recommend booking one which allows you flexibility in changing your dates! As plans ALWAYS change! This reduces the cost of having to pay fees anytime you want to shift flights!

- Prenez un billet tour du monde FLEXIBLE car ce genre de voyages changent toujours !!!

- CaxtonFX is a great multicurrency card, easy to upload and very fair exchange rate!

- Make the most of meeting up with your friends around the world as this is what MAKES your experience!

- Caxton FX est un broker financier qui donne acces a une carte permettant de voayager avec plusieurs devises, du coup tres peu de frais lors des paiements et retraits d’argent

- Insurance! Gees, the only thing in life which you purchase and hope never to have to use!

- L’assurance, contente de ne pas avoir eu besoin de l’utiliser mais toujours souscrire a une police d’assurance et de rapatriement au cas ou !

- Always ASK/ negotiate when appropriate!...’You don’t ask, you don’t get’

- Toujours demander et negocier !!!!

- Items we took with us but did not use at all!:

o A shewee (for those who do not know what this is, women use them a lot in USA and Holland (I think) for camping purposes.. I’ll let you look it up!

o Sleeping bag liners

Finally, Funny Pics/ Photos marrantes