Monkeying Around the World

Ivan, Jennifer and I had breakfast in the villa cooked by Ivan’s mum on October 1, 2009. 

We drove to Ivan’s parents house nearby.  Ivan’s parents grabbed a few things that they had forgotten the night before.

We drove to a supermarket next.  We bought some food.  We drove around some.

Everybody had lunch at the house.  Ivan and Jen had veggie burgers.  They were lacking in flavor.  I cooked some tasty banana burgers.  They wanted some but I didn’t want to share.

Jennifer was a bit tired and took a nap.  I watched while Ivan, Neal and Ivan’s dad played Monopoly.  Neal won the game.

Ivan’s dad drove us to Torrevieja.  We walked along the seafront.  It was a nice walk with great views.  There’s a few cool statues as you walk by.

We got some ice cream and walked more.  We came upon some totem poles. 

They looked really nice, but we couldn’t read the story behind them since it was in Spanish. 

We drove to Giovanni for dinner.  It’s an Italian restaurant.  Ivan started off with a tomato soup.  Ivan got a salmon pasta which was really salty.  Jennifer ordered an aubergine and mozzarella pasta. 

I had a nice banana cannelloni.  The food was alright.  Our server wasn’t very nice to us.

Next, we went bowling.  We played one game.  Jennifer came in first and sadly I came in last.  We all played some arcade games.  Neal wanted to get a prize.  We kept getting more tickets.  Neal won a little ball.  We drove back to the villa.  We had a good day.

Ivan, Jennifer and I got ready for the day on October 2, 2009.  Everybody got into the car and we drove to Calpe.

We walked along the seafront.  We got lots of free samples of food and sangria at the restaurants we walked by.  They all want your business. 

Ivan thought the last restaurant looked good.  Ivan started off with sardines while Jennifer got mussels.  My dish was banana and fish kebabs.  Ivan got the hake while Jennifer got a big piece of sole. 

The fish were very plain.  It was an average meal.   

We walked to the beach. 

Everybody went into the water except me.  Ivan, Ivan’s parents and Jen played ball.  It was a round object that had velcro and the ball would stick to it.  It was good fun.

Ivan bought a bucket and spade.  He started building a sandcastle. 

Everybody then made their own sandcastle. However, the bucket wasn’t really that useful – the sand kept on getting stuck to the bottom of it, so the sandcastles turned out looking a bit pathetic.

We drove up to the rock. 

Neal wanted to climb it.  Ivan and Jennifer thought it was too hot to climb up.  Jennifer doesn’t like climbing since she has bad ankles.  Ivan, Jen, Ivan’s mum and I walked up to the viewpoint.  It’s pretty up there. 

Ivan’s dad and Neal disappeared on us.  They started walking up the rock.  We weren’t sure how long they would be.  We wanted to sit down.  Ivan wrote a note that we’d be at a cafe drinking tea and placed it on the car.  Hopefully, they would see it.

We walked to a cafe.  We had a cup of tea.  Ivan’s mum ordered a nice Bakewell tart.  Ivan headed back to the car to see if Neal and Ivan’s dad were back from their climb.

Ivan’s dad picked up me, Ivan’s mum and Jen.  Ivan’s mum saw an ad that there was a beer festival.  We saw signs but we weren’t sure of the location.  We drove around.  Ivan asked a few people and they tried to explain it.  We finally saw a sign pointing to it. 

We arrived at the German beer festival.  They were only serving one brand of beer.  Neal got a lager and Ivan and Jen got a glass of red wine. 

There was a good band on.  Ivan, Jen and Neal ate a pretzel.  Ivan and Jen tried the wheat beer.  Ivan’s parents left to drive around. 

We had fun at the festival.  Ivan and Jen really liked the smoked salmon rolls they were served.  I had a few banana rolls.  We bought some silly hats and wore them. 

I think they were made of wool – so it was hot wearing them.  Ivan’s mom came and said we should go.  It was a long drive back.  We wanted to stay.  But, we left early to head to the villa.

October 17th, 2009 | Tags: beach, beer festival | Category: Calpe, Rojales, Spain, Torrevieja | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I walked to Jamie’s Italian for lunch on September 29, 2009.  It’s Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant located in Canary Wharf. There was a small queue (line) to get in.  The decor of the restaurant is nice. 

Ivan and Jennifer started off with the popcorn chickpeas.  It was boring and didn’t have much flavor.

I had an okay fettuccine alfredo with bananas.  Ivan and Jennifer shared the prawn linguine and the pumpkin ravioli.  They couldn’t really taste the prawns.  The meal was only average.  We thought it would be better since his Fifteen restaurant in Melbourne was really good.

We went to visit Ivan’s friend Jo.  We chatted for a while at his apartment.

He served us tea and biscuits.  Jo is a friendly guy.

We got the train to Harrod’s. 

It’s a huge department store.  It has really great decorations. 

There’s tons of expensive products to buy at the store like clothes, toys, dog items, perfume and food.

We got a bus to Fortnum and Mason.  We walked around checking out the chocolate, teas, biscuits, jams and cookies.

We walked to Chowki for dinner.  It’s an Indian restaurant.  I had a spicy banana curry with rice. 

Ivan got the mumbai fish.  Jennifer ordered the chicken madras.  It was really good food!

We went to see Ross Noble.  He’s an English comedian who lives in Australia.  He was very surreal.  He was funny though.  But, he was saying lots of English references so Jennifer and I didn’t understand a lot of things.

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Brittania International Hotel on September 30, 2009.  We stored our luggage with the bell desk.

We got a train to Buckingham Palace.  It’s only open to the public July through September.  We went to see the State Rooms.  It was really interesting.  The rooms are quite impressive.  We saw different rooms like dining rooms and sitting rooms with great art.  There’s a big room filled with gifts the Queen has received from her world travels.  It also showed some of the dresses she’s worn on those visits. We couldn’t take any pictures inside.

We picked up sandwiches at Mark & Spencers.  They didn’t really have much flavor. 

We grabbed our bags from the Brittania Hotel.

We took a train to Stratford.  Then, we got a bus to Stanstead Airport.  We met Ivan’s parents at the airport. 

We flew to Alicante, Spain.  It took 2 hours.

We met Ivan’s brother Neal at the airport.  He had taken the earlier flight into Alicante.  We drove to the villa in Rojales.  We unpacked our backpacks.

Ivan’s parents drove to their house nearby.  Ivan, Jen, Neal and I went to Happy Garden for dinner.  It’s a Chinese restaurant.  Ivan got a Tom Yum Soup.  I had noodles with bananas.  Jennifer had noodles with chicken.  Ivan and Jen also drank some average sangria.

October 15th, 2009 | Category: England, London, Rojales, Spain | Comments (1)

Ivan, Jennifer and I went to the Regent Street Festival on September 27, 2009.  Ivan and Jen each had a veggie burger from a stand that was setting up selling vegetarian food.  I had a banana burger.  The burgers were so tasty!

We walked around a bit.  There’s rides and different booths.  We came upon a fashion show.  We watched for awhile. 

The models walked down in clothes from different companies like Nike, Primark and Gap.

I was happy to find some Happy Monkey smoothies. 

They tasted really good, but they were too small.  They’re made for children or small monkeys.

There was a booth with activities for kids.  It was time for hitting the pinata.  The host asked for fathers.  Ivan said he was a dad but his child was at home.  He’s never struck a pinata before and he wanted a go. 

He managed to knock off part of the pinata.

We had fun at the festival.  We walked so much though.

Ivan and Jen wanted a break.  We stopped at MOMO for tea.  Ivan and Jennifer also ordered hummus.

We walked to get tickets for the Comedy Store tonight.  We saved  some seats for us for the show later on, and then went to get some dinner.

We went to C&R for dinner.  I ordered the Nasi Goreng with bananas.

Ivan got the Mee Siam.  Jennifer got the Mee Goreng.  The food was alright.

We walked back to The Comedy Store.  The comedy is all improv.  It turned out to be a really funny show!

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of Novotel on September 28, 2009.  We took a train to Canary Wharf.

We checked in to the Brittania International Hotel.  The rooms are much better than Novotel.  We also had a great view of the docks.

We took a train to Westminster.  Jennifer wanted to go inside Westminster Abbey. 

We got our tickets to go inside.  Audio guides are provided for free.  It was interesting to hear about British royalty of the past.  The coronation of Kings and Queens take place at this church.  We saw many rooms filled with Kings and Queens who are buried here.  It was really nice inside.  Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the church.

Ivan wanted to get some wine.  We walked to the Wine Cellar.  It’s an amazing underground bunker.  The tables are in a dark room that’s only lit by candles on each table. 

Ivan and Jen each had a glass of chianti.  I had a banana juice. 

For dinner, we walked to Busaba Thai.  We met Ivan’s brother Neal there.  Ivan really loves this restaurant.  I can understand since the food is delicious here.  I had a spicy banana curry.  Ivan, Jen and Neal shared some fish cakes and roti for a starter. 

Ivan got the Geng Gari Gari while Jennifer got the green chicken curry.

Ivan, Jennifer, Neal and I went to the King Gong show at The Comedy Store.  It’s similar to the Gong Show.  The host picks three judges in the audience.  A person goes up to do his comedy act.  If the person is bad, the judge can hold up their card.  If all three judges hold up their card, the host will hit a gong and the person must step down.  If the person is actually good for 5 minutes, he’ll go to the next round.  Most of the people were really bad.  Some were actually good.  It does take guts to go on stage and perform comedy.  The people who managed to do their act without getting gonged off, came back for the final on the stage.  The audience claps for who they like.  It came down to two guys.  There was an English guy and a black guy.  The black guy was naturally funny.  But, the other guy won for some reason. 

We had a good day.  We headed back to the hotel for some rest.

October 15th, 2009 | Category: England, London | Comments (4)

Ivan, Jennifer and I packed everything up on September 25, 2009.  I said goodbye to my dad.  We took the train to London in the afternoon. 

We checked in to Novotel in the Docklands.  The room was alright, but nothing that great.

We went into the city.  Ivan and Jennifer had chocolate chip cookies from Marks & Spencers.  I had banana cookies.  The cookies were delicious!

We went shopping for awhile.  Ivan and Jennifer bought some clothes.

We met up with Ivan’s friend Andy and his girlfriend Elena.  We wanted to eat at C&R Cafe but there was a long wait.  Ivan knew of a place nearby. So, went to Soho Thai.  Ivan and Jennifer shared the fish cakes.  I had a mild banana curry with rice. 

Ivan had the jungle curry.  Jennifer ordered pad sieyu.  The food was quite tasty.  We all chatted in the noisy restaurant. 

We went back to the hotel to get some rest.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had the buffet breakfast in the hotel on September 26, 2009. 

We took the tube to the city.  We walked around a bit.

We went to Pret La Manger for lunch.  They make great sandwiches there.  Ivan and Jen each had a chicken and avocado sandwich.  I had a banana and chicken one, which was pretty tasty but a bit expensive (it cost 3 bananas to buy!).

It was time to see some theatre.  We went to see Sister Act. 

The musical turned out to be good.  The main lady was great to watch, and it had some really catchy songs in it.

We met up with Ivan’s brother Neal for dinner.  We went to La Tasca.  It was a busy night in the restaurant, and we had to wait a little while to get a table.  We enjoyed the tasty tapas.  Ivan, Jen and Neal had some sangria. 

October 12th, 2009 | Category: England, London | Comments (1)

I worked on the blog more on September 23, 2009.  I spent lots of time with my dad as well. He was pleased to see that Jennifer had done lots of home schooling with me while I was on the road. I am still waiting for the right time to ask him if I can go to Africa with Ivan.

We had lunch at the house cooked by Ivan’s mum.  I shared a banana salad with my dad.

Jennifer wasn’t feeling well so she stayed at the house.  I chilled with my dad.  Ivan went into the city with his parents.

For dinner, we went to La Tasca.  We ordered lots of tapas.  My dad and I had banana and chicken croquettes and a banana salad. 

Ivan and Jen really liked the salmon, prawns, garlic mushrooms and the aubergine.  It was really great food!

Ivan, Jennifer and I had cereal for breakfast on September 24, 2009. 

I hung out with my dad for awhile.  I worked on the blog.  Ivan and Jennifer used the internet.

We had lunch at the house cooked by Ivan’s mum.  It was banana salad, stuffed mushrooms, quorn, corn and holler bread.  It was nice.

Ivan’s dad drove us to The Harvester for dinner.  Ivan had the chicken breast.  I had grilled bananas.  Jennifer had the whole wheat pasta with blackened chicken.  The food tasted okay.

Ivan and Jennifer played more Wii.  I talked with my dad more about the trip and what he’s been doing lately.

October 12th, 2009 | Category: England, Southend | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up around 10 am on September 21, 2009.  We had breakfast. 

We chilled in the house.  Ivan and Jen played the Wii.  I was chatting with my dad telling him about our trip.

You know people often comment that I look like my dad – but I just don’t see it myself.

Ivan’s mum cooked lunch.  I had a banana and honey sandwich.  Ivan and Jen had some salad, sesame burgers and quorn.

Ivan’s parents drove us to Hadleigh Castle.  We saw the ruins of an old castle.  We walked around the area.  It’s really beautiful up there, and was a really nice area to walk around.

We had dinner at the house cooked by Ivan’s mum. 

Ivan, Jennifer and I had breakfast at the house on September 22, 2009. 

We had lunch at the house cooked by Ivan’s mum.

I worked on the blog.  Ivan and Jennifer played some games on the Wii. 

Ivan, Jennifer, me, and Ivan’s parents drove around the Garrison.  Its a part of Southend where the Army have a base.

We walked along East Beach.  It was a nice day out.

Ivan’s dad drove us to the garden center for tea.  I had some banana tea with a banana tea cake. 

Ivan had English Breakfast while Jennifer had a Chai tea.

We chilled at the house and used the internet.

Ivan’s parents went out for the night.  We walked to the Barn Pub to meet Ivan’s brother Neal.  We had some Rose wine and chatted.  I had banana and chips. 

Ivan and Jen shared a baked potato and curried chicken nuggets.  Awhile later, we went back to the house and drank some more Rose wine.

October 12th, 2009 | Category: England, Southend | Comments (2)

Ivan, Jennifer and I walked into Chinatown on September 19, 2009.  Ivan had some amazing fish asam laska. 

We walked to Nando’s for lunch.  Ivan and Jen each got a tasty chicken burger.  I had a banana and chicken pita. 

We went to the mall.  I watched E.T. on Ivan’s ipod.  Ivan and Jennifer watched the movie A Perfect Getaway.  It was a good movie. 

We chilled in the hotel for awhile.

We got a taxi to Cafe Cafe.  This was our third visit to this great French restaurant.  Ivan and Jen started off with a great Portobello mushroom with ricotta cheese.  I had a nice banana risotto. 

Ivan and Jen shared the chicken breast and the salmon.  For dessert, we ordered a chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream.  We had the chef put in a special message in the chocolate.

The cake was delicious!

We hopped in a taxi headed to the Hilton Hotel.  We went to the Zeta Bar.  Too3K was playing.  This is a great cover band we saw last time we were in KL.  We danced a lot.  We loved that they played I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. 

The drinks weren’t as good as last time.  The bartenders would forget to add certain things like the chocolate shavings in the chocolate martini.  Ivan got them to add it.  A bar manager came over and apologized about the drinks and brought us some free drinks.  We had lots of fun dancing the night away.

Ivan, Jennifer and I went to the Saisaki Japanese buffet on September 20, 2009. 

The selection wasn’t as good as the location in the Sunway Pyramid.  It was really crowded and noisy.  But, we got our sushi fix.  I had tons of banana sashimi. 

We packed everything up.  We checked out of the 5 Elements Hotel.

Ivan flagged a taxi down.  We rode to the airport.  We boarded the plane around 5 pm headed to England.

We slept some on the plane.  Ivan and Jen watched things on the laptop.  The flight was 13 hours long.  The plane arrived at 11:10 pm.

Ivan’s parents picked us up at the airport.  We drove to their house in Southend.  I was so happy to be reunited with my dad Big Dave. We both knew we had so much catching up to do.

Ivan and Jen were getting tired.  We ended up going to bed around 2:40 am.

September 29th, 2009 | Category: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up at 4:30 am on September 17, 2009.  We walked to wait for the coach that was taking us to the airport.  It arrived 25 minutes late.  The ride to the airport took an hour and a half.

Jennifer got stopped because her name didn’t match her visa.  She wasn’t sure why they didn’t notice that when we arrived in Australia.  The lady asked her what her occupation was.  She said mime and the lady didn’t even crack a smile at all. Obviously Australians have NO sense of humour!

People often ask me what my surname name is. Its ‘Monkey’. First name is Dave – middle name is ‘The’…surname is Monkey.

I slept on the plane for awhile.  Ivan and Jen watched Weeds, the movie Adventureland and a great movie called Mum and Dad.  The 8 hour flight went by pretty fast.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 3 pm.  We got a taxi to the hotel. 

We checked in to the 5 Elements Hotel in Chinatown.  The room is very modern, but the bathroom wasn’t anything special.  We all had a nice hot shower.

We went to Nando’s for dinner.  I got a banana and chicken kebab.  Ivan got the chicken burger.  Jennifer had the chicken pita. 

We got a taxi to the Mid Valley mall.  We shopping for a bit.  We went back to hotel in a taxi.

Sorry for the lack of photos, some of photos got corrupted.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had lunch in Chinatown on September 18, 2009.  Ivan and Jennifer had noodles with chicken.  I had some noodles with bananas.

We got a taxi to Plaza Low Yat.  We went shopping in there for computer accessories.  It started raining. 

We walked to Sungei Wang for more shopping.  Jennifer got a facial and wax done.  Ivan and I shopped during her facial.  Jennifer got a haircut as well. 

We walked to Times Square Mall.  Ivan and Jennifer bought a few Baby Milo t-shirts.

For dinner, we went to Tamarind Hill.  It’s an overpriced Thai restaurant.  Ivan and Jennifer started off with the prawn and chicken sticks.  They thought it would be kebabs, but they were deep fried in a rice paper wrapping.  The sticks didn’t have much flavor.  The service was super slow here.  It took over 10 minutes to get our drink order.  Ivan and Jen shared the mango and salmon soup which had a nice broth.  I had banana pad thai which was okay.  Ivan and Jennifer shared the pandan pesto chicken and the very plain cod.  The design of the restaurant was nice.  But, we didn’t have good service and the food wasn’t anything special. It was overall a pretty terrible meal.

We got a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed.

September 29th, 2009 | Category: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Comments (2)

Ivan, Jennifer and I had breakfast in the hostel on September 15, 2009.  We checked out of Calypso Inn Backpackers.  We chilled at the hostel for awhile.

We got the free bus into town.  We all had wraps at the mall.  We walked around town for a bit.  We got the bus back to the hostel.

Jennifer ordered a taxi to pick us up.  The taxi drove us to the airport.  We boarded the plane headed towards Brisbane.  It was an hour and a half flight.

We took the Skytrain to Central Station.  We took the wrong exit out of the station.  Then, Ivan couldn’t find the hostel.  Jennifer and I waited while Ivan ran around to find the hostel.

We checked in to X Base.  Ivan thought the location was really good.  The room was stuffy with bad air conditioning like last time.  So, we got a room on the roof.  It came with a fan but it wasn’t very good.  It got cool when we left the window open.  One downside was walking across the roof to the bathroom. 

For dinner, we walked to Gunshop Cafe.  The restaurant has great design. 

Ivan and Jen shared the tasty house dips.  I had a banana and chicken dish with a creamy sauce.  Ivan had a great snapper.  Jennifer had a plain gnocchi in a tomato sauce with goats cheese.  Sorry, we had a problem with our memory card so some of the pictures got corrupted.

We walked back to the hostel. 

There was a nice view walking on the bridge.

Ivan, Jennifer and I walked around the city on September 16, 2009.  Jennifer wasn’t feeling so good.  We took the train to Milton Station. 

We walked to the Castlemaine Brewery.  We were doing a brewery tour. 

Our guide walked us through the brewery.  We learned about the process of beer making.  We also learned about the ingredients.  Australians add sugar to their beer because of the climate.  If they didn’t add it, the beer would make them sick to their stomach.  At the end of the tour, we saw the bottles on the packing line.  They bottles were labelled and then packed up for shipping.  It was cool to see.  The tour was very interesting.

At the end, we were allowed to get four different beers.  Ivan and Jen each got to pour a beer from the tap. 

I had a great banana beer.  I thought it would have been a lot better without the beer.  It distracts the drinker from the essential flavors of the bananas.  Ivan and Jen tried some beers, but they couldn’t finish them.  They shared some naughty fries.

We got the train back to Central Station.  We chilled in the hostel and used the internet for awhile.

We walked to Wagamama for dinner.  We all had some noodles.  They were not too bad tasting. After the meal we walked back to the room.

September 27th, 2009 | Tags: tour | Category: Australia, Brisbane | Leave a comment