HayleyandLucyGoExploring

Omg this is so cool! Too excited for the next batch!

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:29:46 -0500

Omg this
is so cool! Too excited for the next batch!

This is so awesome! Too excited for the next batch!

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:10:49 -0500

This is so awesome! Too excited for the next batch!

This is so cool! Too excited to do more!

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:39:40 -0500

This is so cool! Too excited to do more!

On to the West Coast via the Red Centre

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:29:15 -0400

One part of Australia I had been really looking forward to was Ayers Rock. On Tuesday 1st March I caught a flight from Cairns to Ayers Rock Resort. The Resort was pretty amazing, basically a cluster of hotels and shops in the middle of the desert with a tiny little airport next door. I stayed in the Outback Pioneer, a YHA hostel, but it was in a hotel complex so I had access to a nice pool! Everything at the resprt was crazy expensive, as you would expect from somewhere with little competition. I had been worried I was flying to the wrong place, most of the tours I had looked at went from Alice SPrings, but I got myself sorted the first afternoon I arrived. At Ayers Rock there is a shuttle bus that runs to Ayers Rock and back, and Kata Tjuta and back. Again, they are fairly expensive but the cheapest way to get to the rocks, and then you can just walk around yourself.

My first day I was up early for sunrise at Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, which was lovely but not exactly spectacular due to the clouds! We then got dropped off at the base of the rock and I took a free guided tour a couple of kilometres around the base, led by a fantastic Ranger, before checking out the Cultural Centre. Some of the Aboriginal stories of the creation of the Rock and of life around the Rock are really fascinating. The second day I caught the shuttle bus to Kata Tjuta, also known as The Olga’s. I completed a 7.4km walk around the rocks in the midday heat with flies buzzing everywhere. It doesn’t sound pleasant but the views were absolutely spectacular and it was pretty cool to walk around and see the different rocks. In all it took about two and a half hours! On my third day I really wanted to go to Kings Canyon but the trips out there cost upwards of a couple hundred dollars, so that got ruled out by myself and the friends I had made. Instead I spent the day in the sunshine around the pool and watched the sun set over Uluru and Kata Tjuta from the lookout at my hotel. On Saturday I caught my flight to Perth, and whilst I was waiting had a mean looking spider crawl up the cushion of the couch I was actually sitting on. It took until I googled it in Perth for me to realise that it was indeed a red back..

Upon arriving in Perth I caught a taxi to meet back up with Scott, and we stayed the night at his friends house before catching another bus down to Albany. There we spent a fantastic week with some relatives of mine, checking out the tourist attractions and beautiful beaches. Our first day, which was the Monday, we did a driving tour of Tonndirrup National Park, which bordered John and Christine’s house. Along the seafront are some spectacular sights. We went to Jimmy Newhills Creek, the Salmon Holes where salmon get caught when the tide goes out and climed up Stoney Hill where there used to be a watchtower. Next stop was The Gap and Natural Bridge. These are natural rock formations which are amazing to look at with the waves crashing up onto them. They are both exactly what they are named, The Gap being a huge crevice in the rocks, and the Natural Bridge being a huge rock creating a bridge across a crevice. The power of the waves was huge and amazing to see. We also went to see the Blowholes, which is an area of rock with small tunnels that have formed underneath. The waves force the water through the tunnels and crevices and the spray gets blown up high into the air. Another very impressive sight, and with the thunderous noise underfoot reminds you of the power of the sea. That afternoon we also went to check out the Wind Farm which is in the hills high above Albany.

On Tuesday we went to see the Princess Royal Fotresses. This particular day they fired a canon which was pretty cool, and loud! The morning was spent looking around the guns and exhibitions and that afternoon we went to look at the Desert Corps War Memorial, which had beautiful views over Albany and the King George Sound. Scott and I then went down to Goode Beach, where the sea is a beautiful crystal clear turquoise and the sand is pure white. The sea was so calm, especially compared to the surf of the East coast, and lovely to swim in, despite the slight chill!

Wednesday we took a drive out to the countryside, out past Denmark to the Valley of the Giants. This was a huge forest with a walkway 40m high up in the treetops. It was really cool to walk through, although not for Scott who is scared of heights! We then took the Ancient woodland walk through the forest which went past huge trees that have holes formed in their bases so large that you can stand in them! We stopped off at the Whiskey Distillery on the way home and then had an early night.

Scott and I spent Thursday morning doing the historical walk around town, looking at all the old buildings. Albany has a rich history as it was the first place to be settled in Western Australia. We looked around a full scale replica of the Brig Amity, the first ship that arrived with convicts and supplies, and also the Patrick Taylor Cottage Museum which is the oldest dwelling in Western Australia. That afternoon was spent down at Goode Beach again before going for a lovely dinner in Albany with John and Christine.

On Friday Scott and I went to Whale World, which is based in the old whaling station. Some of the exhibitions and old photos are pretty gruesome to see, but the history of whaling was pretty fascinating. We had a look around the old whaling ship, and saw skeletons of some of the biggest whales in the sea - absolutely massive! That evening we went for a BBQ at John and Christine’s daughters house which was lovely.

Saturday saw us get a bus back to Perth, where we have now been for just over a week. We took it easy on Sunday and on Monday took the bus and train into Perth CBD to have a look around. We ended up walking miles along the seafront and to Kings Park, which is the biggest inner city park in the world.

On Tuesday we took an early bus to Fremantle where we got the 9.30 ferry across to Rottnest Island. There we spent the morning at the beach in Geordies Bay, had some lunch and took the shuttle bus to the Barracks. We also walked all around Lake Baghdad, which was basically a huge marsh so we felt a bit like intrepid explorers finding our way through the bush! We had a really lovely day, and saw several of the little animals that inhabit the island, called Quokkas. They are basically tiny little kangaroos, with faces a bit like a badger and super cute!

On Wednesday afternoon we went to Cottesloe Beach, with Aaron, Scott’s friend that we are staying with. The beach is beautiful and had huge art sculptures on display! The weather here in Perth is probably the hottest weather I have encountered in Australia, with temperatures upwards of 30 every day, reaching 35 some days. That evening we had a BBQ.

Thursday 17th was Scotts Biiiiirthday! So we went to Hillary’s Harbour just north of Perth and had a lovely lunch in the marina. That evening we went out in Perth, obviously it was also St Patricks Day so everywhere was very busy and we of course ended up in an Irish bar! We also met up with a friend of mine, Mike, from Sydney which was great.

Friday was spent chilling at home with a hangover! Saturday we went up into the hills above Perth to Aarons sisters house for a BBQ. We were out in the Bush and had a good time riding quadbikes and exploring!

Yesterday Scott and I met our friend Mike at Cottesloe Beach in the afternoon, and had a few drinks. We also got our flights booked for Tuesday to Adelaide, so we are looking forward to moving on! The decision has now been made that I will go to Adelaide, then Melbourne and finally Sydney where I will fly home from a few weeks early. Looking forward to going home now but glad I have a few more weeks to make the most of!!

The End of the East Coast

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:15:03 -0500

So, the top of the East coast has been reached! After an epic two and a half months of travelling by campervan from Melbourne, I am now in Cairns, and as if Mother Nature is congratulating me, the sun is shining.. Not. I am currently sat in my hostel, Gilligans, watching the rain pound against the windows, with a load of backpackers behind me watching the TV because there is absolutely nothing else to do. I just got soaked going to the supermarket to buy sausages! I am afraid to say my travel umbrella has been used more times than I care to admit over the last week or so. But I won’t let it dampen my spirits, to be honest it’s quite a nice relief from the heat and humidity that we’ve been experiencing this side of Brisbane.

I last wrote the day before I did a skydive, which I can happily say I thoroughly enjoyed! Considering I had sworn not to throw myself out of any planes or off the top of any tall towers attached to a bungy, I was quite calm about the situation! Lucy and I arrived and had a briefing, got into some trousers and then had a slight wait for some (more) rain and clouds to pass. Safe to say the waiting didn’t help the butterflies in my stomach, nor did the videos of other skydivers being shown on a giant plasma on the wall.. But it wasn’t much of a wait and then we boarded a light aircraft with about 8 other people. Lucy and I jumped from 9000ft, having won the dive I decided not to upgrade but to buy the photographs at the end (which are hilarious!). After some shuffling around in the plane I somehow ended up next to the door which meant I was first out! Argh! Probably a good thing I didn’t watch anyone do it first though. I was strapped to an instructor obviously but he was behind me, so I had to swing my legs out first and then after a bit of rocking back and forth he pushed us out! I had to have my head leant back on his shoulder so I didn’t get the opportunity to look down, which can only be a good thing really. Within a second or two we ended up falling face down, and he told me to spread my arms out. Now this part was freefalling for 25seconds and I can tell you it feels like floating in clouds, most definitely not falling! There was no falling to my death panic, not even the feeling that my stomach had been left behind! Just total calm and wonder to be honest! The bit I didn’t like was funnily enough when he pulled the cord! The parachute going up makes you flip upwards and that’s when my stomach flipped with it. But again within literally a second or two I was put into a seating position and I was flying :) I had a hold of the parachute, which I wasn’t sure I trusted myself with, and then the instructor put us into a couple of spirals which were awesome! Watching the world approach, it was amazing, I saw our shadow in a rainbow going through a cloud, it was so pretty! My legs were lifted for the landing, but we still did a tumble at the end, rolling over for the final stop! So, after all my refusals, I can now say I am SO glad I won it! Cheers Arts Factory :) That night Lucy and I celebrated by dancing on the tables at the notorious Cheeky Monkies bar!

The next day Lucy and I had our surfing lesson! So it was all go, go, go. The lesson started with a talk on the waves and rips and how to read the ocean, the sea out here really can be lethal and you really have to know what you’re looking at before you go swimming on an unpatrolled beach. We then had a lesson lying on our boards on the beach which was pretty amusing, before all piling in the water to basically beat each otherup with out boards. They were so big and heavy! I came off my board once right next to Lucy who was still in the shallows and the second I stood up a big wave came in and I got absolutely floored by her board!! Cheers babe!! I also scratched up my knee on the sandy floor and Lucy came out bruised like a peach, but we had the best fun! I was absolutely chuffed when I got up on the board on my very first attempt! And then again a couple of times with the instructors help. Unfortunately the more time you spend in the water the more exhausted you become, which made it less and less likely for me to get up, and by the time it was hometime I was pretty much done!! I would like to give it another go though, surfing a wave is the best feeling.

After our exhausting couple of days in Byron we headed back to Surfers Paradise that evening for a weekend of beaches and partying, and then got the train up to Brisbane.

Brisbane is where it was all change for me. First Scott arrived all the way from England woop! That was really exciting, just to see a familiar face from home and even better that it was Scott! Brisbane wasn’t the most exciting start for him as alot of it was still damaged from the floods. But we had Lucys birthday on Tuesday 8th for which we had a lovely Japanese dinner and then a night in the Valley. Thursday was then the Day of Doom because Lucy left! It was a most depressing morning full of tears and horrible goodbyes, and I pretty much didn’t cheer up til we left Brisbane and Scott and I got on our proper travels!

So now it is Travelling Part Two: The Adventures of Hayley and Scott! The first thing we did was to book a campervan for twelve days up to Cairns, and book Fraser Island and Whitsundays tours!

We got going the day after Lucy left and had a night in Noosa before arriving in Rainbow Beach. We had an afternoon talk on the safety aspects of our Fraser Island tour and on Sunday we were off! I hadn’t really known alot about Fraser Island up until booking it. We were on what’s known as a tag along tour, where the group is split into four 4x4’s and we all follow each other with a guide in the front car. So it was awesome because we all got the opportunity to drive on the beaches and round the islands sandy roads. The first day we got the ferry across to the island and set up camp on the beach. That afternoon was spent at Lake McKenzie which was beautiful! The water is meant to be like a health spa for our skin so I didn’t get out for two hours :) That night was spent with the group, which actually consisted of 8 cars of 8 people, so alot of us all camping together! We cooked ourselves on stoves and then spent the night playing drinking games! The rain arrived during the night though and it was absolutely torrential! We had a tarpaulin over our tent but it got blown away, so Scott got out to move it back and promptly let all the water that was on top of it into our tent! So that night was spent sleeping in the sand filled 4x4 - lovely!! The next morning we went to Eli Creek, which they call hangover creek because it is so cold! But it was still lovely, and then we headed to see the islands shipwreck, which was fascinating. Apparently the ship was bigger than the Titanic when it was built in 1903, and after being used in WW1 and as a commercial ship, it was decomissioned in 1937. The Japanese bought it and unfortunately it never made it out of Australian waters as a huge storm shipwrecked it on Fraser Island. It was used a restaurant for a time (it must have been a wonky restaurant…) but now it is just the remains.

Onto the Champagne Rock Pools after making up some lunch, so called due to the waves crashing into the pools and creating a fantastic swirling and frothing effect! It was brilliant fun to be sat in the pools as the waves came in, and all get thrown about! Luckily no cuts on the rocks! We then all took a walk up Indian Head, which was a beautiful viewpoint over a couple of the beaches. The rain came again that night so it was drinking games under a big tarpaulin before finding any dry tent you could..

The third and final day was spent on a 2km walk through the jungle to Lake Wabby. Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island, but absolutely unique due to the rainforest that has still managed to grow. Lake Wabby was reached via an amazing sand blow, and the dunes ran right down to the lake. We had a refreshing dip and then got all sweaty again walking back, before heading back to Rainbow Beach for a nice shower!!

The next day we headed up the coast to a town called 1770. This was the first town that Captain James Cook found when he discovered Australia, but there was absolutely nothing there! It was more a night stop for us before carrying on the journey and completing 600kms to Airlie Beach the next day.

Airlie beach is a great place for backpackers, it’s where all the Whitsunday trips depart from so the town is thriving. Scott and I arrived fairly late but still headed out that night. The next day we set off on our two day two night sailing trip! We were abroad the amazing Boomerang, a very impressive ex racing yacht. That afternoon we sailed across to the islands which was great fun, all sat along the side leaning right over. We moored up and had a swim and then a BBQ dinner, and had a fairly quiet evening chilling on deck. The next day we went onto Whitehaven Island and walked to the Lookout for amazing views of the swirling sea and sand, before sunbathing and swimming off Whitehaven Beach. Spotted a baby shark swimming around our feet in the shallows which was cool! We then snorkelled in two separate spots that afternoon and saw an abundance of fish swarming around us, including one particular giant fish which was actually quite daunting!! For sunet we were dropped on a sand spit which completely disappears at high tide, to enjoy the views over a cheese platter! We all got on the wine under the stars that night and I ended up sleeping on deck as it was just so hot underneath! Beautiful :) The next morning we sailed back to Airlie Beach and were back in town for lunchtime. Another fantastic trip! Everyone from the boat including some of the crew got together for dinner and drinks that night which was great fun.

Monday we set off in our Spaceship on another mammoth day long journey to Cairns. We stopped in Mission Beach to check it out, it had been absolutely devastated by Cyclone Yasi, it was quite amazing to see the effects, trees were completely bent over and stripped bare. The town was completely wrecked so it is absolutely amazing that thankfully nobody was hurt.

We have now been in Cairns since Monday and we are staying in one of the biggest hostels in the southern hemisphere! It has a great atmosphere here and it’s a great place for our last stop. The club downstairs is great fun and lots of our friends from Fraser Island and the Whitsunday trips are also here. Yesterday we went on a diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef which was amazing! We went on a beautiful privately owned catamaran, and went two hours out to the Reef. We snorkelled first and then did a half hour introductory scuba dive which was amazing fun! The sensation of breathing under water is brilliant, although the air tank and weights are still very heavy under water! We snorkelled again that afternoon and all in all saw an abundance of marine life! The best was a huge sea turtle! I was just chilling out floating above him and following him around the reef! I also saw a couple of stingrays, a school of squids and some huge clams that opened and closed as you swam by! There were some huge fish swimming around, particularly some called Maori Wrasse. I was absolutely in awe of everything and didn’t want to get out of the sea!

Last night was a friends birthday so a big crowd of us went out and had a great night! Today it is tipping it down as usual so it was the perfect opportunity to update everybody :)

I can’t believe I have completed the East Coast, and now only have a couple of months left! Onto Ayers Rock on Tuesday and to Western Asutralia for a couple of weeks chilling out after the madness of the East Coast!

Two more months to go, the countdown has begun! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The End of Sheila's Journey

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:26:00 -0500

So Sheila the trusty Jucy Campa is now gone, after an amazing three weeks exploring the coast between Sydney and Brisbane. We still haven’t quite reached Brisbane, having dropped it off there we went back on ourselves a bit. But I’ll start where I left off two weeks ago..

Port Macquarie was awesome, we checked out on the Tuesday and went to Ricardo’s Tomato’s! A tomato and strawberry farm. We had a free tour of the place and picked some strawberries, before heading back to town. We had a cup of tea overlooking the ocean and then did a really cool coastal walk along a couple of the beaches, up to a historical lighthouse spot. Lucy and I expected to see said lighthouse, or at least some ruins, but there was just the patch of grass ‘where the lighthouse stood’…. Oh. But still, nice bit of exercise!! We then went to Shelley Beach and had some sandwiches on the picnic benches, being watched the entire time by a huuuge goanna clinging to the tree above our heads. Two more smaller ones were also scurrying around, and eventually the third one made a move. They are so fast! And basically look like dinosaurs!! We were intending to stick around that day for a sunset cruise that evening but the weather unfortunately turned and before we knew it we were being rained on eating our dinner at the side of the road… Time to move on. So we got back on the road and made our way to Coffs Harbour, stopping along the way in Nambucca Heads, a pretty rough little town to be honest so we were glad not to be stopping there! Made it to Coffs Harbour pretty quickly and after trying and failing to find a rest stop for the night we settled on a McDonald’s carpark!! We are all class these days. We made up the bed in the back, battened down the hatches and sat and drank red wine in the back of the van in a far corner of the carpark, trying to be conspicuous in our bogey green backpacker van. Although the police would have a job moving us on after the amount of goon we consumed! Goon, by the way, is a box of wine. Just not very nice wine.. Over here their wine is made using the assistance of eggs, milk and FISH, I kid you not. And goon is basically the crap stuff left over that noone wants (except backpackers) that they box and sell off in 5litre boxes for about $10. GROSS! We have tried to maintain a bit of class by going for the middle of the range stuff, only two whole litres for $14 (about 8 pounds)… So expensive..

So anyway, after sneaking into the BP garage to clean our teeth on Wednesday morning we checked into Park Beach Caravan Park (only Australia would have the same word twice in a place name). That day we took a stroll to the bank in the blazing heat only for it to be tipping down by the time we got back for a swim! The bad weather appeared to have followed us from Port Macquarie so that afternoon was spent in the van drinking cups of tea, before sitting in the van drinking red wine.. Yes, we developed a red wine habit in the van!!

Thursday we checked out after just a night in the caravan park, and as it was still raining went to the big shopping mall for a coffee and a look around the shops. When we came out the sun was shining so we drove down to what they called the Jetty area. We had a walk along the harbour and then across Muttonbird Island to a fabulous viewpoint. And then, about 30 minutes away from our car, it started raining! So we hot footed it off the island (not easy as it was a big hill) and stopped for a cup of tea in the Yacht Club. We then drove to a beach and sat in our camping chairs reading our books for a bit, before cooking up a curry in the carpark! That night we parked up on an area of land called the Gallows on a fantastic headland, right by the ocean. It was a bit back to basics with our toilet being behind a big rock… But it was really cool, with loads of other campervans parked up too, some of which we soon realised appeared to be permanently inhabited by their drivers.. Basically we were drinking beer with backpacker travellers and then ‘proper’ (being homeless) travellers!! But the next morning we woke up and looked out to see dolphins playing in the water.. That’s what it’s all about :)

So that day after seeing dolphins frollicking in the ocean we then went to the Pet Porpoise Pool, something a bit sad about that. But it was awesome, we watched a dolphin show and got a dolphin kiss! And then watched a reptile show, fed Little Penguins and got a seal kiss!! Amazing. The morning was spent there and then we drove to Glen Innes to stay with a friend of ours for the weekend. That evening was his work do so we found ourselves in a town of about 5000 people, in the town hall, with everyone wondering who the hell we were! But we indulged in the free food and wine and soon found ourselves back at someones house in their hot tub drinking, you guessed it, red wine, until about 5am! We ended up having a really nice weekend in the town, the next day we went to Guyra which was close by for a Lamb and Potato Festival, get us being all country! And in the evening went to a familys house for a BBQ which was a really nice evening. We then left Glen Innes on Sunday afternoon.

The rest of Sunday is somewhat of a blur, as we ended up in a little town called Nimbin. This particular town is basically one of the worlds top ten hippy towns, and was founded in the 70s when a group of students came and put on the Aquarius Festival. Anyway I won’t go into details about our evening, I’ll just say Google ‘Nimbin’.. ;)

Monday we had a swim in the morning and then had a look around the towns hippy shops before driving the last hour of our journey to Byron Bay and checking into the Arts Factory. We spent the evening in the hostel, soaking up the atmosphere and getting a henna tattoo!! The Arts Factory is basically one of the biggest and most popular hostels within the backpacking world, and people end up staying in this place for months! There’s always stuff going on, from Bush Walks, to Didgeridoo lessons, to the aforementioned henna tattoing, all for free!

On Tuesday we went to the beach for the morning, and then the pool in the afternoon, taking full advantage of the beautiful weather. That evening was pretty cool, as we took part in the Trivia evening and I won a skydive! Arrggh! I wasn’t even planning on doing a skydive, far too scary, and then I won it, so now I have to! The ridiculous thing was, I wanted to do a surf lesson, which Lucy didn’t want to do, and she won the surf lesson!!! So now we are both doing both!! The winnings were celebrated by drinking in the hot tub for the night!

Then it was Wednesday 26th January which is Australia Day!! We spent the day drinking Byron Bay Premium Beer in the Buddha Bar next to the hostel, which was happy hour prices all day long, with an awesome band playing and a free Sausage Sizzle! We had a really cool day in the sunshine, and had a swim in the pool in the evening before heading to the Beach Hotel in town. It was a day spent doing exactly what Australia is all about, drinking beer and eating sausages in the sunshine!!

Thursday was then pretty brutal, on a slight hangover we had to get the van back up to Brisbane by 2pm. The thing was that New South Wales is currently on daylight saving, whereas Queensland is not, so we were losing an hour. Or so we thought.. After bombing it up the highway and basically emptying the van at our friends house in Surfers Paradise, we whizzed to Jucy Headquarters and phew! We were on time. It was only after we left and got on the 1.18 train back to Surfers that we got utterly confused and realised that Queensland is in fact an hour behind.. Not an hour ahead.. We had dropped the van off two hours early.. We are stupid. We spent the journey back to Surfers Paradise shaking our heads the whole way! That night we took over our friends landing with all our rubbish and stayed there for four nights.

Surfers Paradise is an awesome city, it’s really small, at least in our standards, and all highrise. The city is really new so really clean and the buildings are all really sleek. Our first night we went out in the area of Broadbeach to a club called East and had a great night. On Friday we had a look around the town and went for a swim at a friends apartment building.. Turns out their apartment was in a hotel complex, how very Hollywood! That night we went to a pub in Surfers Paradise that reminded us rather alot of the Hope Tap in Reading!!

Surfers Paradise is like Venice, as it is built all around a series of canals; it actually has nine times the length of canals as Venice. We went to a really lovely lake, just off one of the canals, which people use to swim in, it was so warm and we had a lovely afternoon floating around. That evening we went back out to the pub and then to a club called Vanity. Well it would have been rude not to, Surfers is known as the partying capital of the East Coast, with apparently over 30 clubs in the city!

We hit the beach on Sunday, but the sea was pretty rough so we didn’t stay long. We then went up the Q1 tower which is the tallest residential tower on the Gold Coast, with spectacular views, and then for a BBQ at the hotel of our friends family who were visiting them. We took it easy that evening, and then today we were on a bus at 4pm back to Byron Bay, which is where I’m currently sat, trying desperately hard not to think about the fact that I am throwing myself out of plane tomorrow morning..

Wish me luck!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The start of the East Coast...

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:40:13 -0500

So, the van was picked up, which involved a huge barter over insurance as funnily enough they were reluctant to let me leave with a $30,000 van with only basic insurance… The outcome was they gave me rather a large sum of money off the upgraded insurance, but it was the free picnic table that really swayed me ;)

Our first stop was Mudgee, which was about four horus inland from Sydney, to visit our friends Sam and Joe who we had met in south east Asia. I’m afraid to say those two nights weren’t actually spent in the van but in Sams house! We drove for miles with nothing but countryside around us, but Mudgee itself turned out to be quite a big town with it’s own pubs and bars, actually a bit like Wokingham! We had a bbq at Sam’s that first night and then a night out in his local which was great! The next day Sam drove us around many, many vineyards! Lucy and I enjoyed tasting, red, white, rose and sparkling - even sparkling red?! And then some cheese tasting at the end! We had a few drinks where Sam was working that evening and set off about lunchtime the next day. We wanted to go somewhere in the Hunter Valley so we stopped in a town called Cessnock in a great little campsite. We stayed for two days, and spent one day at the Hunter Valley Zoo where we patted kangaroos and koalas, and watched aligators and monkies get fed. It was a really great day out. Our evenings were spent cooking up dinner and watching DVD’s in the back of the van. The next day we went on a half hour horse ride trail which was cool and then drove to Newcastle. There we had lunch on Nobbys Beach and had a look around and then drove the extra half hour to Nelson Bay in Port Stephens, which had been recommended by Sam. We found a really cool backpackers campsite called Melaleuca, where the owners also care for sick or injured wild animals before re releasing them, so there was a really tame kangaroo roaming the campsite, not to mention the hens that would wander up behind you and peck your legs! We spent three nights and three days in Port Stephen and had a great time. The first day we ate a packed lunch on One Mile Beach then drove to Stockton Sand Dunes. The sand dunes are the largest moving sand dunes in the southern hemisphere and were an amazing sight. We climbed to the top and expected to drop down the other side, but instead the dunes went on and on. We had a walk around and found that you could barely tell where the sand was going up or down, it was all sparkly and amazing! That afternoon we went to Samurai Beach which was alot quieter as it was unpatrolled, so really lovely. We spent the second day on Little Beach getting a nice suntan and the evenings were spent at the campsite cooking up dinner and drinking wine. We bumped into a girl we had met back in Halong Bay which was pretty surprising! The last day we got a lovely hour long boat ride across to a place called Tea Gardens, which was basically a little street! We ate our picnic, had a walk along the seafront and then had a drink in the pub before heading back. That night we carried on driving north and planned to stop somewhere random to sleep in a town called Forster. We ended up at Diamond beach, and cooked up a bbq in the park for dinner. We were about to move on to somewhere to stop for the night but then couldn’t start the van! Everything had locked up and I knew that some kind of immobiliser had kicked in but had no idea how to turn it off! We tried locking and unlocking and unlocking again but to no avail, and neither of us had phone reception! Luckily a woman sat on her verrandah opposite us came out and said she used to work in a car garage, she had a little play around and turned the steering wheel and voila, lock off! She then suggested we park up on a grassy area next to her house which was really kind of her and then invited us up for a glass of wine :) Aussies really are so friendly, and so accepting of us backpackers!

The next day we drove into town and ended up spending the morning on Tuncurry Beach and the afternoon on a beach in Forster. We overdid the sun a bit that day as we both came out a bit burnt. We showered in the beach facilities (everywhere is so well equipped for backpackers!) and decided to treat ourselves to dinner out. We then drove on and stopped at a rest stop for the night, which was also equipped with toilets and bbq’s! When we awoke we had breakfast and made the short drive to Port Macquarie. Two nights in a row sleeping ‘al fresco’ was enough for the time being so we checked into a great caravan park right in the town centre. Yesterday afternoon was then spent sat reading our books outside the van and cooking up dinner. Today we visited a rainforest centre up the road and had a guided tour around a boardwalk which was great! We plan to spend another couple of nights here then move on again. Campervan life is proving great fun, really relaxing and nice cooking up our own dinners! We have a tent that pops up on the roof which we are sleeping in, which leaves the back of the van as a table and seating for us to watch dvd’s, have a cup of tea and store our bags. We also have a nice little set up outside the van with our picnic table and chairs, and a fridge and stove that is accessible when you open the boot. We love it!

Sydney

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:05:17 -0500

One of the last trips we made in Melbourne before moving onto Sydney was to the Great Ocean Road. Johnny, Lucy and I drove Johnnys car down the spectacular coastal road, which hugs the sea almost the whole way. Driving down the winding road in the beautiful sunshine was a fantastic experience, and we stopped at several beautiful beaches along the way. This was really the first glorious sunshine we had seen since arriving in Australia! We drove down to Apollo Bay which is actually only about half of what we could have done, but it made a great day trip out, and was fun to go with Johnny who although living in Australia for a couple of years, had yet to make the trip! The three of us then left Melbourne on the 23rd December at 6am, and made the ten hour trip to Sydney.

Our first night in Sydney was spent in a friend Mikes sisters house and the next day we moved to his friends flat in Coogee. Coogee is about ten minutes from Bondi and about half an hour from Sydney Harbour so it was perfectly placed. It also had it’s own great beach with bbq facilites (everywhere in Oz seems to have free bbq’s!) and a row of shops and bars. Lucy and I ended up staying in Sydney for two weeks!

Christmas was an entirely different experience to that of home, as I’m sure everyone can imagine. Christmas Eve at home would normally be spent in the pubs of Wokingham, and Lucy and I saw in midnight sitting outside the Opera House in the bar with a glass of sparkling wine, overlooking the Harbour Bridge - quite a welcome to Sydney! I could barely contain my excitement, the first view of the Opera House and Bridge is remarkable, and to be honest, so is every view after that! After our civilised glass of bubbly we then went to meet our friends Danny and Richie from south east Asia in the backpacker club ‘The Gaff’. More wine and jagerbombs followed and actually Christmas eve didn’t turn out that different to home after all!!

Christmas Day Lucy and I woke up and exchanged pressies in bed (we sound like a couple), had breakfast, rang the family and then prepared food! Sounds a bit like a normal English Christmas so far hehe but that’s where the similarities ended. Lucy and I weren’t preparing a turkey (which to be honest, I don’t do at home anyway), we were skewering chicken and making potato salad! At about midday we headed down to Coogee Beach for our Christmas Day BBQ. Unfortunately, every backpacker within a ten mile radius wanted a bbq on Coogee beach too, and the queues for the bbq were a mish mash of groups of people sat around their raw food. Now, Lucy and I had spent a fair few hours the night before searching for a disposable bbq, and to our utmost confusion discovered noone knew what the hell we were on about! Turns out Australia - the BBQ Nation - do not have disposable barbies. So there we go, no disposable bbq, and we definitely weren’t queuing so we decided to make the most of the fact our apartment was ten minutes away and Lucy and Johnny went back to the flat to cook the food in the oven! Once they were back we had a great feast of chicken, prawns, sausages, steak, potato salad, coleslaw and chips n dip! As you can imagine, we had a shit load left. After the food we commenced drinking, sat on the grassy area above the beach with a load of other backpackers we knew from south east Asia, all sat in santa hats! It was a great day, but the fact it was Christmas Day somewhat passed us by. Someone later commented that it felt more like a Christmas themed festival, and that was very true. Lucy and I have both already said we are going to be double excited for Christmas next year, because even the Aussies agree that there is nothing like an English White Christmas :)

Boxing Day was a fantastic day! We all donned our finery (all tailor made for about ten quid in south east Asia) and attended International Day at Randwick Racecourse. Lucy and I loved dressing up, having spent ten weeks wearing harem trousers and no makeup in Asia! Sparkling wine is cheap as chips in Australia, so copious amounts were consumed, and bets of no more than $5 were put on each race! The last time I went to the races in Ascot, my betting skills were immense, but it must have been beginners luck as Lucy and I basically lost every race. It was laughable though so it didn’t dampen our day and we spent the evening back in Coogee.

The period between Christmas and New Years Eve involved alot of drinking with a fantastic group of friends we had met in south east Asia and who had all ended up in Sydney, aswell as a few friends of friends. We really, really enjoyed ourselves, going out in Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, Kings Cross and The Rocks, aswell as all having a day on Bondi Beach. Lucy and I also had a day out in the Botanic Gardens, went to Kirribilli for dinner and a look at the bridge close up, and booked a show package at the Opera House!

New Years Eve! The day started pretty early, with Lucy and I finding ourselves in the biggest queue of our life to get into Mrs Macquaries Point in the Botanic Gardens. We had packed a picnic and got down there for about 11am, which apparently wasn’t early enough. Unlike the firwork viewing in London, the main areas are all strictly no alcohol, and require bag searching before entering, resulting in the massive queue. However we were pleasantly surprised as the queue basically moved the entire time and we were in in about an hour and a half. We set up on a grassy verge, unfortunately - being in a Botanic Garden - under quite a few trees… We ate, slept and drank the day away and then at 9pm the childrens firework display went off. Obviously through the trees we didn’t see much, some people don’t mind but I was having none of it, I didn’t come all the way to Sydney to watch the fireworks through bloody trees! So pretty drunk and in the dark, we packed up and pushed our way right down to the front :D We had the most amazing view of the Bridge and the Opera House and waited patiently stood in the crowd for the next couple of hours before the spectacle began. The day long wait was worth it and the fireworks were incredible. They were going off from every direction, with a barge directly in front of us, and the bridge only a short distance to our left. To be honest, with all the sparkling wine that was consumed the day is a slight blur.. But I know that planning our trip around the Sydney fireworks was a decision well made.

Somehow, Lucy and I managed to get home and in bed for 2am, some people had nightmares getting home but we must have been lucky, therefore the next day wasn’t even that hungover! Everyone congregated down on Coogee Beach and the bbq’s were free this time so we cooked up a fantastic New Years Day feast, to see in the new year, but also as a bit of a Last Supper now that everyone was planning on moving on. That evening Lucy and I went to see ‘Love, Lies and What I Wore’ at the Sydney Opera House. It was so funny! It was basically two hours of five women telling stories about their outfits, mothers, handbags, love lives and marriages. Lucy and I were cracking up and they were the type of stories that women everywhere could relate to, everyone in the audience was nodding their heads and Lucy and I were nudging each other all the way through! Lucy nudged me when there was a comment about plane food being kept in handbags to ‘save for later’… Definitely not something I have done!! Afterwards, we met up with everyone in the Coogee Bay Hotel for one last mighty piss up - what a great day.

The next few days involved our ‘pre show’ dinner that we obviously didn’t make it to ‘pre show’! And our tour around the Opera House. We also booked our campervan and were able to pick it up on Friday 7th, but had to be out of our flat early Wednesday! So we spent a couple of nights with our friend Jo in Leichhardt, the other side of Sydney. We had a really nice couple of days with her and her flatmates and friends. Then on Friday I got a cab to Sydney Airport to pick up our campervan and the adventure began!!

Melbourne

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:05:28 -0500

Hello Australia! Melbourne has been a city of shopping and drinking with the Irish! Lucy and I have been lucky enough to stay with a friend of ours we met in Thailand, and we have been here a week now. The weather has been unexpectedly dull here, with even a bit of rain! So much for the unbearable heat we were warned about in South East Asia - it was actually hotter there! We have been told it will be hotter once we’re up in Sydney though so we should hopefully still have sunshine on Christmas Day!

The first few days were spent shopping in the city and sorting things out, we needed normal toiletries (all the ones in south east asia were whitening!) and shoes, bags and fascinators for the Boxing Day Races we are going to in Sydney! We got a simcard and bank account sorted and did our mounds of washing! We’ve also finally got our roots done, although our idea of waiting for Australia to get someone who knows what they’re doing didn’t turn out too true, as we ended up with a crazy Greek lady who definitely turned our hair slightly yellow! We’ve also eaten out in the backpacker area of St Kilda, and had a night out in the city. The weekend was a hectic one with the Great Santa Run on Saturday in the bars and pubs of St Kilda with the Irish expats!

Sunday afternoon Lucy and I drove down to Phillip Island which is about an hour and a half away. The island is famous for the Penguin Parade which occurs every night, when thousands of Little Penguins come ashore to go back to their burrows for a night after a days fishing! We bought tickets and took a seat on some tiered seating on the beach and waited about 45 minutes for the penguins to come in at about quarter to nine. They started coming in slowly, in little groups, and then before we knew it there were hundreds! They swim into the shallow water looking alot like ducks with their heads above water, and then slowly come ashore, being washed over quite a few times by the sea! When they first come ashore they have a little look around for predators and dive back in the water several times before finally making a run for it across the beach. Walking back up the walkways to the visitor centre you can look over into the dunes and see the penguins waddling to their burrows!

Monday night we went to Neighbours Night at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow which was amazing! We met ex characters irish Connor, and Sky Mangle, and Dylan Timmins made a short appearance, but the best was meeting Steph Scully! And then Paul Robinson performing with Karl’s band The Waiting Room. Dr Karl was unfortunately over in England which is typical! We drank lots of wine and got lots of photos and had an awesome evening!

A couple more days left of Melbourne now and then off to Sydney! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! xxxx

Our Top Ten South East Asia Experiences

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:45:35 -0500

1. Riding a moped around Koh Samui.

2. Sunbathing in Angthong Marine Park on a postcard perfect beach.

3. Standing in the shallow sea on Koh Phangan watching the sun go down with a beer in hand and fish swimming around our feet!

4. Sat at the edge of the ocean watching the sunrise over the sea from Haad Rin Beach after a long nights partying at the Full Moon Party!

5. Trekking for two days in Chiang Mai, and more importantly, finishing the trek!!

6. Having a chat with an orange robed monk so he could practice his English in a temple in Chiang Mai.

7. Kayaking down the Mekong River!

8. Two days tubing in Vang Vieng - the best partying of South East Asia with the best crowd!

9. Sailing through the rocks of Halong Bay on the front of a wooden junk with a beer and the sun going down.

10. Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Cambodia/Cambodge/Kampuchea

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:01:06 -0500

Our trip to Cambodia was short and sweet, being only six days in total, but it was a great week. Cambodia is a country of contrast, the rich are clearly silly rich - we saw many young girls being driven around in posh 4x4’s and lunching at nice cafes - and the poor are some of the poorest we have seen in south east asia. The country is full of street kids who grab onto you and don’t let go, wanting food and money. Their english is impeccable, some as young as about 5 or 6. One evening a little boy was asking for milk so we decided to buy him milk, in the shop he then pointed to a $20 tub of formula, saying it was for the baby. Unfortunately we had been told about a scam, where you buy things for kids from shops and they immediately take it back and get half the money back. To be fair, this kid probably did want the formula, but we decided against spending $20 on him. There were about twenty kids a night asking for the same thing and you want to help all of them but it’s just impossible. We had to remember that this country is full of NGO’s and realistically the best way to help is to donate to them.

Anyway, from Saigon we decided on a night bus to Phnom Penh. This was a mistake!! Sleeper buses are no more once you get down to Saigon, they seem to be strictly a Vietnamese thing! SO we had a normal bus, which was annoying but we could live it, as it was supposedly only a six hour journey… Except it wasn’t, it was about four hours to the border then two hours of sleeping in a hot coach waiting for the border to open! At 6am we all piled out to leave Vietnam, piled back on, drove a hundred metres and piled back out to enter Cambodia. We arrived around 11ish and got absolutely accosted by tuk tuk drivers. After a night of fitful sleep in the heat we were so not in the mood. Walking along the riverside, the sun was blaring, and the guesthouses were so expensive! We eventually found a nice one and after checking in and showering we had a nice relaxing lunch. The rest of that day was spent drinking smoothies, walking along the river, napping, and going out for dinner. Phnom Penh is a lovely location, I didn’t even realise it was along a river until we arrived! The streets are set out in a grid system, tree lined and pretty, and the roads are so very quiet - no constant beeping like in Vietnam!

Our second day in Phonm Penh was a pretty horrendous sight seeing day. Our first stop was S-21. This is a former school that was turned into a prison in the days of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge regime ruled from 1975 to 1979 and an estimated 2 million Cambodians were killed in the most barbaric of ways. Pol Pot, the party leader, wanted an agrarian based communist country, and moved entire city populations into the countryside who were then forced into hard labour. Anyone seen as against party policies was imprisoned. This was basically anyone who had any education, any professionals who were considered capitalist and of free mind. These people were tortured in prisons like S-21 and kept in barbaric conditions, before inevitably being taked to many of the countries ‘killing fields’ to be battered to death over mass graves. After looking around S-21, which is full of photos of the prisons victims (the Khmer Rouge was very particular about keeping records of their victims), we headed out to the Killing Fields. This area is full of mass graves, with teeth, bones and clothing still coming up from the ground when it rains. Many of the graves have been excavated and their is a huge stupa in the middle of the field, full of skulls and bones, to honour the dead. To say the day was depressing is an understatement. We kept thinking how recent it all happened, and looking at anyone over the age of forty in Cambodia, you really want to know how they survived. The sad thing is that in Cambodia they believe that the dead have to have a proper burial to move on, and the fact that none of the victims did is apparently still a source of massive pain to the victims relatives. After looking around the Killing Fields we got dropped at the citys Russian Market for a look around before having some lunch. That afternoon I then went to have a look around the Royal Palace and that evening we met up with friends and had dinner and a few drinks out.

Next on the agenda was Siem Reap, which brought alot more ancient history for us! We opted for a day bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap which was much better than doing it over night. Our guesthouse in Phnom Penh booked us into their sister hotel with free pick up from the bus station, which made it alot easier for us upon our arrival. The hotel was lovely, and we had free breakfast which was a bonus! OUr first evening we ventured into town and found ‘Pub Street’, a great little street full of restaurants and bars! The town has apparently changed dramatically in the last ten years and you can see that it is a town grown up around tourism. Our first full day was spent out seeing the Temples of Angkor! We decided on our own itinery and got a tuk tuk driver and a guide and off we went! We started in Angkor Thom, which is an area full of a few different sites. We went in the South Gate and our first stop was the incredible Bayon. This temple is probably the most well known, and even if you don’t know the name you would know the famous image of Bayon’s faces. The entire building is full of Buddha faces, and seeing them for real was fantastic! The carvings are in amazing condition considering the age. The temples of Angkor date back to the 10th century. After Bayon, we saw a few other little temples, some of which are undergoing restoration, before heading to Ta Prohm. Something I didn’t know before arriving is that this temple was used in the film Tomb Raider! This particular temple is brilliant to explore as it is still very overgrown, and trees have grown up around the templed, meaning many of the trees’ roots are exposed and winding around the ruins. Cue some great photo opportunities! The morning was a long one, and we had a late lunch. Unfortunately at this point Lucy was coming down with a bug, and she headed back to the room, whilst I went to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset, along with about a thousand other tourists! Nonetheless, it was a great experience and the sunset was of course beautiful.

Day number two was the big one, I was up at 4.45am to get to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise! Again, this is a very popular site for the sunrise but the grounds are vast and so it was alot less crowded than the peak of Phnom Bakheng. The temple looks amazing as the sun is rising, and is reflected into the pool in front of itself, which makes some fantastic viewing. It takes a while but eventually the sun then rises above the temple, when another bout of photo taking ensues! Angkor Wat is a spectacular temple, being the worlds largest religious building, and has some beautiful carvings. The temple has five towers and it was possible to get right up into the top of the middle one. The views over the surrounding grounds are also lovely. By 9am we had looked around Angkor Wat and from there it was onto Preah Khan, which is the temple of the sacred sword. This temple was similar to Ta Prohm in that it had been left to ruin and is still largely overgrown, resulting in some climbing around to see it all! We then headed out to see Banteay Srei, which means the Citadel of the Women, and was a pretty temple built of different colour sandstone - some with a pink hue! On the way back we looked at a temple called Banteay Samre before having lunch. The afternoon was spent looking around the temples of the Rolous Group which date even further back than Angkor Wat, as the area was the first capital of Cambodia, known as Hariharalaya. These temples were obviously in more ruin than the temples of Angkor but impressive nonetheless, especially the largest of the group, Bakhong, which was a nice last stop as the sun was going down. As you can imagine, I was shattered that evening, and Lucy was still not feeling well having spent the day recovering at the hotel, so a quiet evening was had.

Our third day in Siem Reap was lovely, it was the first time in a while we hadn’t had to rush to move on. We had breakfast and then sat in the sunshine on the roof for a while. Cambodia was so hot, especially compared to Vietnam where we even had rain! We wandered into town for lunch and had a look around the markets where I bought an Angkor Wat T Shirt, before Lucy went to see Angkor Wat in a tuk tuk and I went and had a massage! It was back to Pub Street and the famous Angkor What? bar in the evening but it wasn’t a late one as we were both still very tired!

The next morning we got a bus at 8am to head back to Thailand! I wish we had had more time in Cambodia, the people were helpful and friendly and I think know there were alot more towns to explore. The bus journey back was a long one, and the border was the worst of the lot, two hours were spent waiting at passport control, an hour of which was outside in the heat. It was totally unorganised too, we had to get off the bus and switch onto a minivan on the Thai side, so some guy carted our luggage off and left it on the other side of the border for us to find ourselves! Coming back into Bangkok was a funny feeling, almost like coming home! We got dropped at Khao San Road and we were both amazed that we’ve done it! The circle has been closed, the loop has been completed, South East Asia has been thoroughly explored and there we were, back where we started. It was funny looking around at the other travellers on Khao San Road, knowing that some of them have probably only just arrived and are yet to do everything we have just done. I felt like a bit of a seasoned traveller!!

However we are doing one last stop in a town called Ayutthay just north of Bangkok, and after some dinner last night we hopped straight on a train. Today has been spent looking around more temple ruins, as this is a former capital of Thailand from the 14th century, and then looking around a floating market. We decided to come now rather than when we were first in Thailand because their is a festival going on celebrating the town becoming a World Heritage Site. Tonight we are going to a sound and light show over one of the larger temples which should be spectacular!

Tomorrow it’s back to Bangkok airport for our flight to Melbourne! It feels like the end of one adventure and the start of a new one! I have had the absolute time of my life in south east asia. I have seen some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen, met some amazing people, and partied hard! I have been constantly surprised by the people and the experiences, and have mostly found the south east asians to be friendly and helpful. Food and accommodation has been excellent, and some of the towns have been positively beautiful! Mostly, instead of seeing signs of poverty or signs that these are still developing countries, I have seen people living off the land, not rich, but definitely not poor, always with a smile on their face. If I could do these ten weeks over again, I most definitely would, and I most definitely intend to come back!!

Bye Bye Vietnam

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 07:52:07 -0500

I am currently sat waiting for a bus to Cambodia, so I thought I would do one last blog in Vietnam about our trip today to the Mekong Delta! A very short update, we were up early for a 7.30 pickup and we got a minibus down to My Tho. From there, we got a wooden boat across the river to the island of Ben Tre. There we sampled an array of tropical fruit, saw a bee keeping farm where we tried honey tea, and saw a coconut candy workshop! I bought some coconut and chocolate sweeties which are yum! We had a nice Vietnamese lunch and took a bike ride around the area, before being rowed down one of the many little streams down to the main river and getting the boat back to the mainland. It was lovely to look around the island and we had an enjoyable day out! Back in bustling Saigon now, waiting for a bus to cross the border into Cambodia, hopefully arriving in Phnom Penh around 6am.

Feeling a little sad this evening that our South East Asia trip is so close to finishing, I don’t want it to end! Nine days to go - Hello Cambodia!

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The curse of Vietnamese buses

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 08:33:00 -0500

I am writing this from Saigon, our very last stop in Vietnam. I am absolutely roasting sat in the reception area of our guesthouse, with several women lying on the floor around me as it is basically their living space! We are situated down a tiny little alleyway with lots of similar guesthouses, at the moment all the Vietnamese are sat in the alleyways on plastic stools eating their dinner with music blaring, kids running around playing and scooters whizzing by.. I definitely just nearly got knocked over!

As a whole Vietnam has been an interesting experience. It was the country I was most looking forward to but so far not actually my favourite. I don’t know whether that’s because I had high expectations, or because we’ve had to do the country alot quicker than we wanted, or even maybe because Laos was so hard to beat! Obviously we started in Hanoi which I loved, the craziness is hard not to like when you first see it! But Vietnam as a country began to grate on us as we moved down. I have never known salespeople like them, they don’t just come and offer you their wares as others did in Thailand and Laos, they then stand at your table giving a long spiel about how they can’t afford to go to school, or follow you down the road talking at you until they get bored of being ignored.. Which takes a long time! The young girls that try and engage you in conversation are the worst, because you get chatting and then they try and make you feel sorry for them, the best line we’ve had is ‘open your hearts with your wallets’. Yes, seriously. Don’t even get me started on the motorbike men.. “Hello, motorbike?’, ‘Hello, you buy something?’, all day long, every single second!

Going back to the beginning anyway, for our last day in Hanoi we were up early to get to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We queued up and got sent through in a line, walking slowly around Hi Chi Minh in his glass case protected by five armed guards. It was an eery sight, for those who saw Lenin in Russia with me, it was a very similar experience, no cameras, no stopping, and it all takes about one minute. The mausoleum itself was a huge structure though, very impressive, but I have to say I felt bad going to see a man embalmed when his wish was actually to be cremated. It would seem it’s a very communist thing to do - embalming dead presidents. Anyway, afterwards we had a look round some of Hi Chi Minhs residences and then the Ho Chi Minh Museum, none of which were that interesting but they were right next door! Then the afternoon was spent looking around the horrible Prison Museum which had some horrendous things on display, a guillotine to name one. After that we had time to kill so we went to watch Disneys Megamind in 3D before getting our overnight bus! Unfortunately, Vietnam has also proved to be the worst country travel wise. Pretty much every bus journey has been plagued with trouble! Our bus from Hanoi down to Hue broke down for three hours at 5am, lengthening an already long overnight journey.

Hue itself was a good stop, the first afternoon we went to see the citys Citadel, which was the Royal Palace built in the early 19th century, and the Imperial City. It is mostly now in ruins, alot of it from bombing, but the area it covers is vast and it was easy to imagine how it used to be. We also went to see the tomb of the last Emperor of Vietnam, and his many wives, which was a very impressive sight. Our second day in Hue was spent on a tour to the DMZ. This consisted of seeing alot of sites of things that ‘used to stand here’! But it was nonetheless very interesting. We were shown the Ben Hai River which was the divide between North and South Vietnam, and the second borderline after the North pushed slightly further south. We saw an abandoned airbase and the site of an old army base, but best of all was a set of tunnels which the local villages dug out to hide in and take shelter from bombs. They consisted of bomb shelters, family rooms, a maternity room, and even water wells all over three levels underground. The tunnels were incredibly small and low, and would only have been lit by oil lamps. It was amazing to still be able to go down there.

From Hue, we went down to Hoi An. Hoi An is a lovely little town on a river that is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It used to be a port for Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese traders and the influence from all three cultures is evident there. There are lots of sites to look around, and we looked at a Japanese bridge, a Chinese Communal Hall and an old Vietnamese house among other things, aswell as taking a short trip down the river with a couple of ladies paddling us! We also watched a fantastic dance and music show in the evening. On our second day we took a morning tour out to My Son. My Son is an area of ruins dating from the 4th century when it would have been in the Champa Kingdom. The ruins are amazing to see, and our guide explained that it is a mystry how the temples and buildings were made, as they didn’t use cement between the bricks, but they are still standing! What was absolutely terrible to see were the buildigs that had been destroyed by US bombing in the Vietnam war. These buildings had stood for centuries and then knocked down by a single bomb. An absolute waste and another atrocity commited by the Americans.

Hoi An also held a surprise for us in that it is a town full of tailors. Shops everywhere that can tailor make clothes or shoes in 24 hours. Lucy and I both succumbed and I got a beautiful silk dress tailor made for 15 pounds, and a pair of leather shoes tailor made for about 17! Amazing. Whilst we were in Hoi An we also popped down to the local beach which is part of the famous China Beach. The weather so far in Vietnam hadn’t been very good though, no sunshine and not very warm. The beach was very windy and the sea was incredibly rough, but still a lovely stretch of coastline.

Then came another rubbish bus journey between Hoi An and Nha Trang. Or bus got stuck in a traffic jam for FIVE hours, making our total journey length a staggering 19 hours. Horrific! Turns out a trailer had obviously been stacked up too high with wood and had collapsed all over the mountain road. The tailbacks were horrendous and when we passed they just seemed to be stood guard over the wood instead of attempting to move it!

Nha Trang’s main appeal is the beautiful beach there, but the weather was not being kind and without the sunshine the town itself left a bit to be desired. There were some lovely beach front restaurants, but aside from that the town was pretty standard, and the horrendous rain we had there didn’t help! I did however spend an evening visiting the island Vinpearl, which is their answer to Disneyland really, with a big waterpark (not that I went in there), some outdoor rides, a fantastic aquarium and an indoor games room. The cable car you have to take over the sea to get to the island is also a fun trip in itself! Due to the bus taking up part of our first day we didn’t stay very long in Nha Trang, and we got a bus to Dalat next.

This particular bus journey was plagued with flat tyres, twice we had to stop to change it. Again this really encroached on our time in Dalat, as we only planned to spend the night there. Dalat is way up the mountains and we expected quite a small town, however it was still incredibly bustling. We went to some waterfalls just outside of town, where the main attraction was actually the rollercoaster ride down the hill! Then to an architects house which has become known as ‘Crazy House’ due to the crazy buildings! Very Alice in Wonderland-esque with winding stone staircases and rooms built into trees and stone! We also had a very enjoyable evening, listening to an expat on the guitar in a nice restaurant, and then going with him and another expat to a local kitchen/bar! It was the type of place where the locals sit on stools around plastic tables, throwing their foor on the floor and drinking beer over ice. We tried quails eggs, clams and then said no to a particular ‘delicacy’ of an egg with a baby chick inside.. Not nice.

Another early start in Dalat to get a bus down to Saigon and all of a sudden our Vietnam adventure is over! We got here late yesterday and had a great night out last night with a bunch of people we have met around South East Asia - it seems everyone has ended up in the same place at the same time! Today we visited the Reunification Palace which has been left as it was the day the North Vietnamese ploughed through the gates in their tanks. Afterwards we went to the harrowing War Remnants Museum, which was really very well set out. There were some horrendous images from the war, and also of the people that have been affected by Agent Orange since the war. It was a real eye opener and shows that the affects of war are still very present.

Tonight is our last night in Saigon as tomorrow we are going on a day trip to the Mekong Delta and getting an overnight bus to Cambodia! Last country of our South East Asia tour, and only a week and a bit to go!

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Goood Morning Vietnam!!

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:27:17 -0500

What a very original blog title, I know! But we did actually arrive in the morning so us turning to each other on the bus to say ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ was a very exciting moment! Especially as the bus was sooo horrendous, and we’d been on it for 12 whole hours..

But prior to any of that, we had Laos! Which was the best surprise of our trip, what a beautiful country it is. After the delights of Luang Prabang we were expecting a bit of a comedown in the next town, surely they couldn’t all be as lovely as Luang Prabang we thought. But we were pleasantly surprised again and again! After Luang Prabang we went on to Vang Vieng, which yes admittedly was not totally unlike being at a European holiday destination.. Malia, say.. Or Ayia Napa.. But still the town had other things to offer besides the partying! Although of course, partying is the aim of the game there, and party we did! I don’t know how many of you will have heard of ‘tubing’ before, because Lucy and I are sure we hadn’t actually heard of it until we started our travels. Basically, tubing consists of hiring a tractor tyre inner tube, no bigger than a standard rubber ring, and getting a tuk tuk ride a few kilometres up river where you all get dropped and left to it. The first thing that happens is someone accosts you with free whiskey shots. Should have realised then really that it was game over!! There are little wooden hut style bars all the way down the river, literally every few hundred metres, and the whole crowd moves together down the bars until about 6 o clock. There are about 400 people all doing the same thing, and the bars have free whiskey, cheap buckets, spray paint and slides and swings better than any water park! Lucy and I got stuck in straight away, hitting the slide, then the swing, and consuming a few morning beers! You have to make sure you grab a tube though as everyone starts leaving because some people literally just do the bars, ‘borrowing’ a tube to get them to the next one. Due to this it is quite literally a mass evacuation the second one person sets foot in the river!! And so on to the next one the crowd moves, all floating down the river covered in paint trying not to spill their buckets! There was a really high jump that Lucy went and did, so I had no bloody choice, thanks Lucy! It was pretty terrifying but pretty exhilarating! Obviously we were having to be careful about where we jumped, as their health and safety is practically non existant, and you had to watch out for tubers and rocks in the river. There was a wicked zip line that I went on more than once, and another huge slide, not to mention the mud volleyball. It was more mud carnage than volleyball, but that’s what buckets do. The first day - yes we did this twice! - it was dark before we knew it and we were back late, woops, but at least we had a tube to return! The next day we ignored the hangover and started all over again, basically putting off the inevitable; the next day we felt like death. We spent that third day mostly in a cafe that played reruns of Friends and at about 3pm decided to go and check out the towns more cultural sights and went to the local caves and blue lagoon, which was beautiful.

Vang Vieng was followed by Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Again, we didn’t have high hopes as we’d heard the city was basically a construction site, but it was fabulous! You would not believe it was the capital city, there were no traffic jams and pretty boulevard style roads, with posh bakeries and fancy restaurants dotted around. The other fantastic thing about Laos was that the people are so, so friendly, and they don’t hassle you. In fact to get a tuk tuk ride, you generally had to get the bloke out of his hammock in the back of his truck! Lucy and I met some friends and went to a lovely little French restaurant on our first evening, and then went bowling and played some pool! The next day we checked out the Laos National Museum which was fascinating, followed by their Victory Monument which looks remarkably like the Arc de Triumph and then a Buddha Park just outside of town in the afternoon.

Looking around the museum, you almost feel sorry for Laos, they were under French rule at the beginning of the 20th century, and once they had the French out the Americans came along and tried to take over. Laos is also one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world, with the Americans dropping two million tons of bombs between 1964 and 1973. Around 30% of these bombs failed to explode, and they reckon it will take 100 years to clear the country of all the Unexploded Ordnance. Learning about it was horrifying, as it is something that we just don’t get told about in the West. After Vientiane we headed up to Phonsavan, mainly to see the Plain of Jars they have there. This is a vast area covered in stone jars of varying sizes, and nobody knows the true meaning behind the jars or why or how they got there, much like Stonehenge at home. One theory is that they are funerary urns, another more amusing local theory is that they were used in ancient times to brew rice wine! We spent a lovely morning walking around the area seeing how the locals lived and checking out the Jars, it was nice to be in a town in Laos that was practically unspoilt by Westerners, the towns we had been to so far had obviously been very much geared towards us travellers. However, there was another story in Phonsavan, the town was in the most bombed Province in the country. Therefore the Plain of Jars was also littered with bomb craters, and we were able to watch a few sobering documentaries on the subject of the UXO in the Mines Advisory Group centre who are helping clear the country.

We only spent a day in Phonsavan, and to get to Hanoi we annoyingly had to go east to Vinh in Vietnam, 6 hours south of Hanoi! To get to Phonsavan and then to Vinh we used local buses, and it is safe to say they were the last local buses we are taking! They absolutely cram them full, with people having to sit on stools down the aisle, and several people along the back row. There was also a rather odd hour long stop before we even left Vientiane for everyone to get water, and most strange, stock up on French baguettes that were being passed through the bus windows… The bus journey from Phonsavan however was the worst, we turned up at 6am in the morning, to find our driver glugging a can of Beer Lao and acting rather drunk. After alot of protest and reassurance on their part that we had two drivers, off we went.. With the drunk bloke driving. He was driving slow enough, so unfortunately we were left with little choice but to watch the road and hope for the best. He got us to Vietnam in one piece, twelve cramped and smelly, dirty hours later. In Vinh we had an excellent dinner for a couple of dollars each and then got a sleeper bus to Hanoi, which after the local buses, was bloody luxury.

And so here we are in Vietnam! The country we were most looking forward to, and after Laos it has alot to live up to! But so far it has not disappointed us. Hanoi is unlike any other city I have ever been to. We are staying in the Old Quarter, with narrows streets, tiny shop fronts, street kitchens with tiny plastic stools, and mopeds zipping everywhere! Crossroads don’t mean a thing in this city, and to cross the road it’s a case of waiting for a slight gap (if you’re lucky), then walking slowly and purposefully into the road, not dithering, and letting the traffic move around you. The middle of the city is occupied by a big lake, with some lovely restaurants and cafes around it. We spent the first day recovering from our bus journeys in a spa and cafes, having a quick look around Memorial House - a traditional dwelling in the old quarter. The next day we were all recovered and we had an epic sightseeing day! We went to the Temple of Literature which was the first University in Vietnam, founded in the 11th Century! Then had a look at the temple on the lake, which houses a giant embalmed turtle.. Random I know, but turtles are one of their four holy creatures here and these giant ones are said to inhabit the lake! We had a lakeside lunch then went to the Museum of Ethnology which covered all the Vietnamese hill tribes, aswell as having each of the tribes traditional houses to have a look around outside. We had dinner in a street kitchen for some authentic Vietnamese grub, then went to a Water Puppetry show which is a 1000 year old tradition and was fantastic to watch! We then walked back through the Walking Streets Market which was pretty good.

After the two days in the city we then went on a trip to Halong Bay. The bay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is indescribably beautiful. There are rocks jutting out of the sea everywhere, with floating villages set up between them. It would be easy to get lost amongst all the tiny islands. We did a three day two night trip, the first day including a trip to some caves - easily the most impressive we’ve seen so far, lunch on the boat and then a night on Cat Ba island. The second day we did a climb up to a fantastic viewpoint in the mountains, had lunch and checked out the beaches, then had a cruise and dinner on the boat before dropping anchor in the middle of Halong Bay somewhere in amongst a load of other tourist junk boats! It really was quite a sight. This morning we did some early morning kayaking and after lunch in Halong City we came back to Hanoi. Whilst we enjoyed trying out some Vietnamese food on the trip it is safe to say we were absolutely sick of rice so for dinner we went to Pizza Hut!! Absolutely exhausted now, and tomorrow we are getting up early to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum, and then the Prison Museum which PoW’s used to call the Hanoi Hilton.. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow afternoon we are getting on a bus to Hue, much further south. We can’t believe how soon our time is up in South East Asia, it has really flown by, so we are now making the most of every moment to make sure we don’t miss a thing! None of the relaxing times we had in Thailand!!

Hope everyone at home is getting excited about Christmas, Hanoi has Christmas decorations everywhere and we are missing the build up at home!

Lots of Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Laos!

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:24:41 -0500

Hi everyone,

We are currently in Luang Prabang in Laos and have been here for four days so far! The town is a fabulous little place, and besides the border town of Houay Xai this has been our first stop. The town is rather small, but incredibly popular with Westerners, in fact it is positively full of them, either backpackers like us or OAP tour groups! It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because the town is considered so pretty! There is a big French influence here, in the style of the buildings and in the breakfasts! We really could stay here for alot longer just chilling out in the lovely cafes or eating in the many nice restaurants they have here.

After our trek in Chiang Mai we went up the mountain of Doi Suthep where there was a temple and beautiful views across the city, and then bussed across to Chiang Rai where we spent about three days. Chiang Rai was another nice town, with a great night market, but not a whole lot to do during the day. We went to see a temple where we had an impromptu meditation lesson from a monk which was pretty surreal, and visited an art and cultural park called Rai Mae Fah Luang. The particular park is also an educational centre for children of hilltribes, set up by the late Queen Mother. It was a beautiful spot and we spent a nice afternoon wandering around! But apart from that Chiang Rai was definitely a chill out town, and we were excited to come over to Laos!

To get here we crossed the Mekong by a little row boat - that was immigration done! And then got a two day slow boat from Houay Xai down to Luang Prabang, stopping at a little town called Pakbeng for the night. The slow boat was pretty cool with beautiful views of the Mekong.

Since being here Lucy and I have been to visit the Royal Palace Museum and done a kayaking trip to Pak Ou Caves. We were kayaking for two hours before reaching the caves which are full of about four thousand buddha statues - pretty impressive - and then another hour down the Mekong! We didn’t fall in once, not even on the (fairly small) rapids! Today we also went to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls out of town which were spectacular.

Moving on tomorrow to Vang Vieng for some tubing which we are very excited about! Hope everyone is well xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone, Currently sat in a little internet cafe in Chiang Mai and this is a pretty dodgy...

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:50:55 -0400

Hi everyone,

Currently sat in a little internet cafe in Chiang Mai and this is a pretty dodgy keyboard so excuse any errors!! Every time I come to update this I have to think back before I start, I’m amazed at what we are fitting in each week!

The south is now well and truly behind us, but after Koh Samui we went to Koh Phagnan for a few days. There we stayed in a little beach bungalow which was really cute, even though we got totally ripped off with the price back in Bangkok! The sea was shallow so far out so we were able to walk into the ocean and stand and watch the sunset with a beer in our hand which was wicked :) We went down to Haad Rin every night, everyone just parties on the beach on this island, very different to Samui. But also different in that it is far more laid back, there are no hotels really, all just little bungalow resorts with hammocks outside, and the roads, when even paved, are all up and down the hillsides!

The first night we went down to the beach it was pretty crazy, they have a thing about fire on that island, there was a fire skipping rope, a fire limbo, fire breathing, fire signs.. Everything! We avoided the burning skipping rope but I did partake in a little limbo.. I did the first level, just to say I did! Then scarpered.. There were too many people running around with burns. It’s crazy what they let you do, you really have to have your head screwed on and avoid anything stupid.

The second night on the island was Saturday and the notorious Full Moon Party woop! The beach was full of people, stands selling buckets and uv painters. Lucy and I got painted up by a friend of ours and a group of us all hit the beach together. There were Full Moon Party signs on fire of course and DJs setup every few metres down the beach, with little stages out the front of each. We had started the evening with a beer watching the sun go down, and I’m proud to say we stayed the night and watched the sun come up, at which point we looked at each other and said ‘time for bed’!

The cafes in Haad Rin are fantastic due to the fact they show movies alllll the time! So the next night we went down for some food then chilled out and watched ‘The Beach’, the book of which we have both read whilst out here.

Monday we left our bungalows and began another absolutely mammoth journey. It took us two whole days and nights to get up North. First was the boat and then overnight bus back to Bangkok which was an experience in itself. At about 2am asleep on the bus I felt something brush past my feet, looked down and saw a Thai guy crawling on his tummy down the aisle of the bus. I was so shocked! I woke up Lucy and we just saw him slither down the stairs. We didn’t think he had got anything and it had happened so quickly there was nothing we could do. I was pretty freaked out and stayed awake to keep an eye out, which is hard when the bus drivers keep all the lights off (now we understood why they say ‘lights not working’). About an hour later I turn around and see a pair of feet, in the darkness, sticking out from under a blanket. This time I was ready and woke up the whole bus. The guy didn’t get anything, but he got away down the stairs before anyone could stop him. I was pretty shook up after the journey to be honest and I think we will think twice before booking any more overnight buses.

So anyway we arrived in Bangkok at 5am on Tuesday and had some breakfast in a nice little cafe and then actually slept in there for a few hours!! And then basically killed time before getting on our 2.30 train to Chiang Mai which would take us there overnight. Except the sleeper train we had booked wasn’t there, so we came all the way up north in third class on some crappy benches, with the windows open and bugs flying everywhere. Happy bunnies we were not. But arrive we did, at about 7am on Wednesday and we came straight to a great little guesthouse in the centre of town who are putting us up for about a fiver a night!

Besides the fact we were pretty spaced out and felt like we had lost two days of our lives we decided to book onto a trek for the next day! And also spent the afternoon out and about in the city. We went to see Wat Phra Singh, which is the most famous temple in the city, and whilst we were there we had a sit down with a couple of Monks who wanted to practice their English. One of them was telling us that he is originally from Laos and came to Chiang Mai for University and to become a novice monk. The monks in Thailand wear bright orange robes and especially here in Chiang Mai they wander around in groups like any normal students! We then went to visit Wat Umong, which is more of a big park than a temple. There is a big lake there full of massive fish which the Thai’s like to go along and feed! Lucy and I were throwing some bread in and being suitably girly about the beastly fish snapping at the surface!! We went straight from there to the biggest market in Chiang Mai, the Night Bazarre, and went a bit shopping crazy! The market was amazing, the best we have been to, with some great souvenirs, but also fabulous wood carvings and silver jewellery. We spent about an hour haggling for various items before going back to pack for our trek!

So yesterday morning off we went at about 9.30 and headed straight to an elephant camp where we got an elephant ride! The elephants are so amazing, so huge but so agile, climbing up steep hills and through the river, all with us on their backs! We left the camp and had some lunch and then the trekking began. We walked for about an hour and a half up some hills, into the forest and through some really windy footpaths until eventually we came to a fantastic waterfall. Had a much needed cool off there for an hour or so and then off we went again! Into what had now become pretty dense forest, and up some really steep paths, for about another two hours until we reached a village of ‘mountain people’. This particular group of people were part of the Karen tribe, who are Burma’s biggest ethnic minority group and have faced persecution in their home country for centuries. In the 90’s, facing savage treatment, the Karen then fled to the jungle borders of Thailand and Burma. The Karen have not been granted citizenship by Thailand, and many of them don’t even have refugee status, therefore they have largely been left to fend for themselves. In the particular village we visited, the Thai government wouldn’t allow them electricity, instead has given each house a solar panel. The people were incredibly hospitable though, and we stayed in a little lodge all six of us together on mats in our sleeping bags under mosquito nets! We even had a couple of beers each with our dinner of Thai Green Curry which they cooked for us :)

After a short nights sleep due to the noisy pig that was roped up directly under our raised lodge, we had breakfast and set off again, this time trekking for three hours straight. It was such a relief and such a great feeling when we finished! Especially as it had been raining and it had started to get incredibly slippy, both Lucy and I ended up on our bum at one point or another! After lunch the trip was then rounded off nicely with a leisurely trip down the river sat on a bamboo raft!

Lucy and I are now absolutely exhausted, and have made up for two days of rice by having a nice dinner in a mexican restaurant :)

I am going to try and upload some photos soon to make this blog a little more colourful! But for now we are going to call it a night.

Night xxxxxxxxxxxxx

We heart Samui

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:43:00 -0400

So we have been in Koh Samui now for a week and we absolutely love it. This place is amazing! After the ridiculous 24 hour journey and then the clouds making us suitably grumpy, we were chuffed to bits when the sun came out a couple of days in. And it hasn’t gone away yet :D

We spent six nights in a town called Lamai. Lamai is the second biggest town on the island and has a beautiful beach and alot of nice restaurants, but because it’s currently their low season we found it actually pretty quiet. Saying that, we still had some wicked nights there. The first evening we found ourselves in an Irish bar surrounded by bikers! And I’m talking proper hairy Harley Davidson bikers! They were having a fundraising event for a local school and all the bikers had come over from the mainland for a weekend of partying basically, so we joined right in! There was a wicked rock band playing and lots of drinks flowing. We fit right in in our flowery sundresses… Ahem, but they included us in the party and we had a great night.

The second day we were here we hired a moped to explore the island. It’s the best way to do it, in our own time and for the money we paid (about three quid for the day). We first went to a town called Bophut which is on the north coast, and has a lovely little area called Fishermans Village. Lots of lovely little cafes and restaurants and I kinda got the feeling this may be where the expats or holiday home owners hang out. So we had a coffee, then headed along the coast to see the Big Buddha. Exactly what it says it is, and that was the cultural part done!! We then headed back down through Chaweng and back to explore Lamai before getting the moped back before dark.

The worst bit of news we had when we arrived was that there was a three day drinking ban.. Get this.. Due to elections?! Excuse me?! We’re on the party island! We want to party! But it didn’t manage to stop us our first night, or indeed the next when we found ourselves in a lovely Mexican restaurant (Have I mentioned how well we’re eating here?!) after hours with the wine flowing.. Lights off = Private party :) Another fab way that all the bars seemed to get around it was by serving their alcohol in coffee cups! Genius.

Which brings me to Ark Bar which we discovered on day three. Ark Bar is in Chewang, which is the busiest town on the island but not so pretty and kinda smells! But all of that is fine, and we have spent the last few nights getting taxis here and back and we have now moved to Chewang for three nights in a hotel called Chewang Palace. This particular bar is right on the water, and they have bunches of sun loungers pushed together with little tables perched on top and everyone sits and chills out and wanders around chatting. They have good music, shisha and reasonably priced - strong - cocktails, and people can buy lanterns and fireworks from Thai sellers to set off from the beach. It’s bliss.

But basically, the people have made this town. We have met an Ozzy boxing enthusiast, a Danish hippy from the Amazon (for real), a bunch of riverdancing Irish lads, and a bunch of Canadian girls who taught us the best little drinking chant (one for us girls when we’re home!) And due to the fact it’s low season, we have been bumping into these people every night and all partying together. It’s been wicked :)

Daytimes have mainly been spent on the beach (except for one unfortunate day where our hangovers were hideous), and swimming in the sea. It’s sandy and shallow further out than you could imagine, and clear and warm and beautiful! And today we we were up at 7am - after bed at 3.30 - to get a boat trip to the Ang Thong National Marine Park. Had a lovely day on the most picturesque little islands, and saw a lagoon that had formed in the middle of the mountain. Basically this place is as close to picture perfect paradise as I’ve ever come.

Next is Koh Phangan in a couple of days for the infamous Full Moon Party, and then, so I’m not inciting any jealousy here, let me tell you that we are headed up North to Chang Mai where there is apparently rain, floods, and more rain.

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Foot Sucking Fish

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 05:16:01 -0400

So we’ve finally been here a week and already it seems so much longer! I am writing this from an internet cafe on Koh Samui, we just arrived today after an epic 24 hour journey.

To backtrack slightly to Bangkok, we left on the saturday morning in a minibus to get to Kanchanaburi. We stayed there one night and loved it! I would well recommend the place as a stop for anyone if you go to Bangkok. We stayed in a little dodgy backpackers place called Jolly Frogs and had a teensy little room with a pretty gross wet room attached.. Funnily enough neither of us showered that night :P During the day we hired bicycles (I stood debating over the mopeds for a long time… I’m going to definitely hire one at some point!)and went to the Death Railway Museum. The museum itself was really good, told the story of the POW’s from WW2 that were forced to build a rail link between Thailand and Burma through thick jungle and cliffs. One of the war cemeteries was directly opposite and even though it is in the middle of a tiny town in Thailand it was nice to see that it is beautifully maintained. We then cycled down to the Bridge over the River Kwai to have a look. They let everyone just wander all over the tracks and the bridge even though the track is in use!

Also staying in our b+b were some German and Danish people who we got chatting to, and then Lucy and I went and had some drinks in this really cool biker bar and got chatting to an English couple, then the whole lot of us went down to this club called Nine Under Where, lol! A Thai band was playing and it was clearly where all the cool Thai kids go as it was buzzing! The band was awesome, playing Linkin Park and Lady Gaga mixed in with Thai music! A few beers were consumed and it turned into a 3am bedtime for Lucy and I.. We were meant to be getting the 10.24 train out of Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok the next morning, which funnily enough didn’t happen! We instead got the 4.15 train… which in Thai time meant 5.15 grr. This unfortunately meant that the last half of our journey on the infamous Death Railway was in the pitch dark.. But it was still pretty scary going through the tight tunnels the POW’s had dug out by hand, and then on wooden trestle bridges around cliff faces!

We arrived in Nam Tok that night to find it absolutely dead and deserted, with just a couple of Thai ladies offering to take us to their accommodation. Through lack of choice we went with them, along with another German guy who had ridden the train with us. We were offered some pretty bungalows and then shown to the rafthouses.. They were amazing and despite the price Lucy and I were sold so we all decided to share one to split the price. That night we then got pretty drunk on Bacardi and Coke sat on a bamboo raft attached to these floating bungalows with a group of Australian, German and English expats living in India. We had a great night! I was pretty tempted to swim in the river, as others were, but I really couldn’t get over the fact it was BROWN, although it was probably only mud, it looked pretty gross to be honest!!

So the next day we continued on our journey, this time going north to Erawan National Park. This particular National Park has what are supposedly the best waterfalls in Thailand, and I can tell you they are pretty spectacular! There are seven tiers in total, only five of which we completed due to the pretty sketchy paths and steps upwards, and the fact that each pool was teeming with FOOT SUCKING FISH! Honestly, these little critters attach themselves to your feet and pretty much anywhere else they can cling on. These particular fish are pretty small, but along with that there were HUGE fish.. It was taking longer and longer to get in each pool trying to dodge these fish, so it’s probably a good job we gave up at level five!!

So in total we spent two nights in this lovely little bungalow in the middle of this National Park, with nothing around, barely any people, and pitch black roads to the top. Therefore Lucy and I spent a relaxing couple of evenings in our little bungalow planning the next bit of our trip and drinking Raspberry vodka and lemonade (what else was there to do!?)

Then came the absolutely mammoth journey ahead of us. We left Erawan at 10 o clock yesterday morning on a bus to Kanchanaburi.. Once there at about midday we got on another bus to Bangkok.. This one taking nearly four hours, mainly due to the crappy traffic around the city. Once in Bangkok we went back to the travel agent who had arranged our minibus to Kanchanaburi and she said she could get us on a bus to Koh Samui that left at six.. And it was five o clock at this point! So last night, after a quick pizza on Khao San Road we got back on a bloody bus and drove over night down to Surat Thani. The bus itself was pretty cool to be honest, there was plenty of leg room (especially for us as we managed to blag the top front seats!) so the chairs reclined right back. So it should have been an okay journey except we kept breaking down!!! Every half an hour we were stopping and the driver and a group of boys were sticking their heads in the engine emerging covered in grease. I have no idea what was up but we eventually arrived at Surat Thani about 7 o clock this morning. Onto another bus and then a ferry and voila, Koh Samui at midday today :) And guess what.. It’s CLOUDY.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bangkok

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:07:01 -0400

Hi!Hayley here.

Arrived safely in Thailand after a slightly delayed take off, but shorter flight than expected. I slept pretty much the entire time, whilst Lucy got through three movies! Stepping outside the airport the heat hit us, so muggy but no sunshine. We were expecting to find Bangkok pretty flooded, as our Rough Guide had warned us, but so far no floods and only one short bout of rain! Turns out we didn’t need those travel brollies/ponchos afterall!!

Bangkok is a pretty crazy place, we got a taxi straight to Khao San Road and looked for the D+D Inn, somewhere I had found online and is as nice as hoped! Lovely pool on the rooftop, outside bar area and a clean, basic room. We opted for the windowless room in the middle of the building to avoid the noise from the street! Khao San Road itself is as crazy as people say, stalls selling clothes, dvds, jewelery etc, and then loads and loads of these little food stalls that they wheel around with their bells ringing!! The food doesn’t look particularly appetizing I have to say, even though the guide books recommend them, we are giving them a wide berth, mainly because we have absolutely no idea what the food is!!

Talking of food, Lucy and I have managed to eat rather well so far, you will all laugh at what we had the first night… Pizza and wine in an italian resaurant!! Get in :D Hit up a few bars the first night and went to one called the Brick Bar, which was recommended in our guide book (fast becoming the most important item I packed). You would never have known this particular bar was there from the outside but we went in and found ourselves in a really cool underground bar full of local Thais with a band playing on stage! Couple of Singha beers and we fit right in (as if)!

Our first day we went to see the Grand Palace, only to be told it was closed to the public until the afternoon due to a religious holiday so we got shuffled into a tuk tuk and taken to some other small temple, pretty but also pretty unremarkable! Then the tuk tuk took us to the TAT (Tourist Asccoaition of Thailand) where we nearly had our entire trip planned for us by the sales guy! After a few firm no thankyous we got our accommodation booked for the Full Moon Party on the 23rd. The tuk tuk driver was outside waiting for us and after a few more no thankyous (“one more stop to see clothes and I get free fuel” …. “NO”) we got dropped on the road to the Grand Palace. With time to kill we went to see the National Museum, which had a very good exhibition of Thailands history - pretty fascinating! Turns out everyone absolutely loves the current King and Queen too, apparently the King has been known to make visits to places disguised as a normal man to see how people really live! Their photos are also absolutely everywhere though so how he manages to go unrecognised I don’t know! Also a room full of the carriages used in royal funeral processions.. Pretty amazing and massively elaborate!

The Grand Palace was next which was really very lovely, the place was covered in gems inside and out! By this point though we were pretty much melting in the weather so we headed back to the hotel at about 3. Enjoyed a nice swim and then had the customary Thai massage and not so customary facial, but they were cheap!!

Headed to Chinatown last night which impossibly is even more hectic and even busier than Khao San Road. We were getting pretty hungry and pretty demoralised trying to find anything to eat that wasn’t fried insects (I kid you not) whilst avoiding all the ‘helpful’ Thais. Eventually we came across a rather lush looking White Orchid Hotel and I knew from the guidebook they had nice food.. And although not from a food stall, it was Chinese - Result! There is also a bar we wanted to find called the Sky Bar, so we got in a tuk tuk and found ourselves at another stunning hotel on the 83rd floor… The views were incredible and they had WINE! So all in a all a very busy day followed by a typical backpacker evening hahahaha :P

Today was even hotter than the last couple of days and we had a very unhelpful tuk tuk driver trying to sell us boat tours to a floating market that wasn’t even on, but we eventually got where we wanted to be after a couple of boat taxis, which was the Wat Arun, a very pretty temple (more of a monument) that has incredibly steep steps to the top level.. Pretty cool! We then had a lovely lunch in a place called Aquatini, nice english food and a cup of Earl Grey haha!! It was on the riverside but that really isn’t as nice as it sounds, the river is GROSS, really really gross!! The whole city also pretty much smells, so we are moving on tomorrow. And I think this is when the real backpacking will begin, I don’t think we’ll be getting sandwiches or wine outside of the city but we shall see. We are moving onto a place called Kanchanaburi for a trip on the Death Railway, and to see the Erawan Falls.

Missing everyone, lotsa love Hayley and Lucy. xxxxxxxx

The girls at Mine and Lucys Leaving Do!

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:41:55 -0400

The girls at Mine and Lucys Leaving Do!